Linux infection proves Windows malware monopoly is over

[Robert Brockway]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2010, Michael Lauzon wrote:

> Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events:

> "If you downloaded and installed the open-source Unreal IRC server in
> the last 8 months or so, you’ve been pwned. Here’s the official
> announcement:

This isn't the first time this has happened.   It happened with a version 
of OpenSSH once and has happened a few times with various distros.  This 
is the principal reason why md5 hashes for downloads are displayed and 
checked.

These days integrity checking is done on packages for most distros which 
will prevent this as long as the verifying server hasn't been compromised 
as well.  This comes down to good security practices.

It's rather unfortunate that the application was compromised for so long 
but methods to avoid this problem have been in use for a couple of 
decades, so maybe they need to pick up their game (and probably will now 
:) ).

Rob

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