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  https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/05/03/1351203/ubuntu-founder-pledges-no-back-doors <phorum break> -in-linux

No intentional back doors anyway.

newtonville150 Wrote:
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> No intentional back doors anyway.

I remember in the days before Linux, Unix geeks would brag to Microsoft users about how secure their systems were. Of course, Unix pioneered the concept of back doors, created by none other than Ken Thompson, the original designer of the Unix operating system at Bell Labs... the bragging was quite ironic. Those who know about his methods should be frightened, but it's a good dose of reality check, even with open source software like Linux.

cchan006 Wrote:
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> newtonville150 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > No intentional back doors anyway.
>
> I remember in the days before Linux, Unix geeks
> would brag to Microsoft users about how secure
> their systems were. Of course, Unix pioneered the
> concept of back doors, created by none other than
> Ken Thompson, the original designer of the Unix
> operating system at Bell Labs... the bragging was
> quite ironic. Those who know about his methods
> should be frightened, but it's a good dose of
> reality check, even with open source software like
> Linux.

I used to have a client that at one time was sold on a Unix based software package on an IBM server. We are tallking $35M plus here. The consultant was bragging to me about how Unix OS on an IBM server is the absolute best and is fail proof. Well, I had an aquaintance down in Ausie land hack into the system through the known back door and post a very "in your face" message for the consultant the next time he logged in, as root. Everything ran under root. The consultant never admitted to it nor found out how it happened.

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> newtonville150 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > No intentional back doors anyway.
>
> I remember in the days before Linux, Unix geeks
> would brag to Microsoft users about how secure
> their systems were. Of course, Unix pioneered the
> concept of back doors, created by none other than
> Ken Thompson, the original designer of the Unix
> operating system at Bell Labs... the bragging was
> quite ironic. Those who know about his methods
> should be frightened, but it's a good dose of
> reality check, even with open source software like
> Linux.

Ken Thompson chose Unix for the back door, but mostly because it was close at hand. In the article, "Reflections on Trusting Trust", he noted:=10.000000pt"In demonstrating the possibility of this kind of attack, I picked on the C compiler. I could have picked on any program-handling program such as an assembler, a loader, or even hardware microcode."Something for the Chinese to think about, if they buy American CPUs. And vice versa.