I don't quite understand the logic behind this. The fact that the program's source is available is itself a proof that there are no backdoors. Anyone can read the source code and make sure it's OK. However, this argument does hold against non-OSS. It can even be used to promote Linux (and other free open-source operating systems), since someone could distribute some win32 trojans on download.com, tucows.com and others. Regards, -- Vlad Stesin vstesin@cs.mcgill.ca On Sun, 22 Nov 1998, Jim Choate wrote:
Forwarded message:
X-within-URL: http://lwn.net/1998/1119/Trojan.html
THE TROJAN HORSE
Bruce Perens <bruce@hams.com>
There's a problem that could very badly effect the public perception of Linux and Open Source. I want people to think about this, and hopefully "head it off at the pass" before it happens.
Perhaps it's already on your system today: a trojan-horse program. It might be a game, or more likely a system utility. It's author uploaded it to an FTP archive, where it was then picked up by your favorite Linux distribution, who wrote it onto the CD-ROM that you bought. It works just fine, but hidden away in the program is a special feature: a secret back-door past your system's security.
Perhaps the author of this attack is tired of hearing about what great hackers we are, and wants to take us down a notch. He's patient - he will wait until his program is distributed to tens of thousands of Linux systems before he says a word. But say is what he'll do - he's not really interested in breaking into your system. What he wants is the publicity, bad publicity for us, and lots of it. We've left the gates open for this trojan horse. Let's talk about how to close them, and hope we have enough time to solve this problem before our reputation is hurt.
[mnoga tekct oodalyaty]
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Technology cannot make us other than what we are.
James P. Hogan
The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------