Miscellaneous > The Lounge
Secure Code
voidmain:
Actually after you read the article you will find that being open source does not matter, since you need the compiler to compile the compiler source and it's the original compiler binary that will add the back door into the new compiler binary (almost like a virus). The back door does not have to be in the new compiler source for it to replicate.
dbl221:
Well its a chicken and egg problem thats for sure. I know people who write their own assembly code because they don't "trust" the code that handles mouse click events etc.
Ultimately everything comes down to "trust". Our entire financial system is a house of cards resting upon trust. Remember that lesson from monetary history class about how everyone thougth tuilips were worth loads of cash.....eventually the trust was questioned and the whole house came crashing down.
I bet your local ATM machine is using VTAM or X.25 to do its thing.........but who ever thinks to question the source code for these protcols.
The point is "trust" is relative and must be earned........we can trust the open-source people more that we can trust a big company like M$. Money and power corrupt......M$ has both so they can't be trusted .........CGU and FSF have almost no money so they are accorded more trust.
Whom do you trust???
voidmain:
I agree. The worst part about it is the back door code wouldn't *have* to be in the compiler or any other part of the OS. It could be in the microcode (BIOS/CPU). Remember the V chip? Maybe they just added the code to the intel CPU. Hell, there must be *some* reason for those billions of circuits in the bloated Intel chips.
cahult:
I
dbl221:
Well as I recall there were a few bugs in the first pentiums. But I think VoidMain and the ACM article were talking about a deliberate back door placed in the microcode-rom or some op-code that left a door open......the floating point bug was an accident......or so we are told.
I recal a news story about some software that the Canadian spy agency, CSIS was using that was riddled with back doors........hmm!
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