this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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Explain Like I'm Five

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PLEASE. I keep seeing it in memes. As I understand it the latest version of the xz package (present in rolling release distros like Arch and SUSE Tumbleweed) has "a backdoor", but I have no earthly clue what can be done by malicious folks with access to that backdoor or if I should be afraid or how to check if my distro is compromised or how to prevent damage if it is or (...)

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[–] Fecundpossum@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Chances are very, very high, that you are not nearly interesting enough to warrant someone utilizing said back door to discover your stash of furry lewds. The primary target for an exploit like this, is either nation state level (industrial/political espionage, tampering with financial markets, etc.) or criminal enterprise level going after high value targets. Trying to dragnet every random whoever to see if they have data worth compromising wouldn’t be much of a money maker.

That said, this is one of the dangers of using a rolling release. I was running endeavourOS and was likely exposed to the back door for a while. I’ve since switched back to Fedora, which was only exposed on its testing branch (rawhide).

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

to discover your stash of furry lewds.

No need to call me out, even if my home instance makes that obvious.

[–] Fecundpossum@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sorry I assumed you’d get a laugh out of it, wasn’t trying to do any harm.

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Fecundpossum@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

lol. Okay good.

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