112
Unveiling the xz Utils Backdoor which deliberately opens our SSH connections for RCAs
(www.youtube.com)
Anyone got a link for this topic that isn’t a video?
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
112 points (88.9% liked)
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Good explainer, if you need to catch up like I did:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils
Read the supply chain attack section.
Also, from the video...
X is losing its action! We LIKE!
Hell yeah we like.
Thanks for the pointer.
This is really huge, but people don't quite understand that yet.
If this wasn't caught, every system -running public sshd- could be hacked or abused/misused.
And I completely agree with the last words, corporate should pay foss projects!
Even paid it might be hard to find maintainers with knowledge of the code
For all those wanting to know what version of the xz package you have, DO NOT use xz -V or xz --version. Ask your package manager instead; e.g. apt info xz-utils. Executing a potentially malicious binary IS NOT a good idea, so ask your package manager instead.
So if I have been using arch with infected xz library to connect to a Debian LTS server, am I compromised?
Assume yes until you can prove otherwise.
From what I've read both arch and debian stable aren't vulnerable to this. It targeted mostly debian-testing.
Arch put out a statement saying users should update to a non infected binary even though it doesn’t appear to affect Arch https://archlinux.org/news/the-xz-package-has-been-backdoored/
However, out of an abundance of caution, we advise users to remove the malicious code from their system by upgrading either way. This is because other yet-to-be discovered methods to exploit the backdoor could exist.
I would pay attention to the news. You definitely want to upgrade immediately if you have not already
I need the IASIP meme for this thumbnail
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=gyOz9s4ydho
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
That thumbnail is something else