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Your computer is tormented by a wicked god

When Ken Thompson accepted the 1984 Turing Prize he gave an acceptance speech called "Reflections on Trusting Trust": It's a bombshell. Thompson proposes an evil compiler, one that inserted a back-door into any operating system it compiled, and Since Thompson had created the original Unix compiler –this was a pretty wild thought experiment, especially since he didn't outright deny having done it.

By Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net/2022/07/28/des

@corlin

Honestly, I could see it. Upstream OS codebases have been compromised in the past, and I feel like if one is trying to establish persistence in that scenario, sabotaging the build tools there would be instrumental.

I imagine it'd take a lot of work, but there's always going to be someone with that kind of motivation out there.

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