[ubuntu-uk] Backdoors into computer systems was Ubuntu on the BBC!!!

jim.cameron at buhlersortex.com jim.cameron at buhlersortex.com
Fri Oct 23 10:22:22 BST 2009


Daniel Drummond:
> This reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago,

[snip ken's evil compiler story]

I had a paper related to that ("On Trusting Trust") somewhere ...
rummage rummage ... ah, here we go. "Countering Trusting Trust through
diverse double-compiling", David A. Wheeler.
http://www.dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/ The basic idea is that you
recompile the suspect compiler from source using a different, "trusted"
compiler of your own. Then you use the result to compile itself from
source and compare that binary with the original, suspect binary. If
they're identical, the compiler is clean.

jim
--
Jim Cameron
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