Read an article that said the NSA OWNS Linux

[NSA_Dontspyoneme]

Basically the article said apple, ms and linux are all wide open to the nsa. The article said the only os they trues is Qubes.....

Opinions?

Is Mint backdoored or wide open to nsa snooping and attacks. The article said to be slightly secure you need to run snort and know how to use it.

[jimallyn]

I would be interested in seeing the article. Got a link?

It seems unlikely to me that there are any backdoors in Linux or just about any open source software. All the source code is available for anybody to look at, and if somebody included a backdoor, it would likely be found very quickly.

[lmintnewb2]

I read an article that said aliens own the NSA, so there's a real mind twister 4 ya ! Arghhhhh, good thing I keep my aluminum-foil hat close @ hand.

On the real ... wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it. Tell the truth think it's more than safe to say for overwhelming majority of humanity, if the NSA, former KGB or any other major govt entity wants to know what you're doing with your computer, where you're going online etc etc. They will certainly do so, one way or another.

Out of all those would still have mucho more faith/trust in open source and gnu/Linux. For many reasons that have been discussed over and over to death.

[Pierre]

that was when Julian Assange said that about Debian.

[Cosmo.]

Opinions?

About what without any source?

[Moem]

I try to avoid having opinions about things I have no knowedge about and articles I haven't read. So, no.

[Habitual]

Opinions?

Without sources, it's FUD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqcSWI6Ppks

Personally, I think you're obsessed with this subject.

[Drygar]

GNU/Linux is open source. You can't say this for Windows, Mac Android - all used a lot more than GNU/Linux operating system. Everyone can check the code and everyone can test the software Q/A. So, whatever they say, most can be checked. With Windows, most people cannot check them and to know exactly what happens,when they call home, what for, etc.

[GreyGeek]

It would not surprise me in the least if it were discovered that the NSA owned a back door into Linux or any other OS.

Ken Thompson created a backdoor in the Unix login command that accepted either the user's password or his special password, to make debuging and testing easier in any environment. How he did it is explained here. To avoid seeing his special code in the login source he added the login source to the c compiler source and recompiled the c compiler, then replaced the c compiler source with the original source. When compiling the login source the c compiler would compile it with Thompson's back door, otherwise it would compile the source normally. When compiling the c compiler the tainted c compiler would see its own source being compiled and put back door into the c compiler executable.

Basically, there is no such animal as a totally secure operating system. It's just that some are more secure, to the average user, than others, and none are secure from forceful intervention. If the NSA, or any other government, came to you with a "request" and an NSA letter, threatening you freedom and/or your life, or that of your family, what would you do? They did that to the creator of PGP and he supposedly defied them. Did he? How could you or I tell? The demands for logs of anonymous servers by governments have force admins, since they are forbidden by law to say anything about government demands, even to their wives, and in some cases to their lawyers, have resulted in "canary" text files which say in affect that as long as the canary file states that the admin has not received an NSA letter one can assume that the NSA does not have access to user logs, if they exist, or user account info.

Bottom line: if you don't want the government to know what your business is than don't store info relating to it on the web or on any of your digital devices. Your analog devices (paper, photos,etc) had better be well hidden. My basic assumption is that the all the major governments of the world, and most major corporations, know everything about me that I know. The only people I am keeping secrets from are you folks!

[Flemur]

I read an article that said aliens own the NSA, so there's a real mind twister 4 ya !

Yep! It's the Reptilian Aliens and the Council of the 13 Royal Families. They're so clever that the word "linux" NEVER APPEARS!

[gunvolt]

The NSA does not own Linux, it just owns a few distros.
The NSA is known to use vulnerabilities in software, including zero-days. Maybe that's what they are talking about?

[lmintnewb2]

@Flemur ... those sneaky reptilian bastids !!! I knew it but alas, I've got several layers of aluminum in my hat so all is well.

[wong]

Basically the article said apple, ms and linux are all wide open to the nsa.

OpenBSD ftw

[Fragezeichen]

It seems unlikely to me that there are any backdoors in Linux or just about any open source software.

Let's be honest: Who has read the source code of the kernel and every single program installed on his computer, provided he has manually compiled all of them from source?
The vast majority of GNU/Linux users obtain their software through pre-compiled binaries. So even if someone verifies the source code of a certain application, who says it hasn't been modified after compilation and the pre-compiled binary doesn't actually do something different?

Edit: And even if you compile everything yourself, read and fully understand every single line of code, who says the compiler hasn't been tampered with?

[wong]

Linus' approach seems more practical than tinfoil hat.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torv ... rity-pros/#!

Re the OP, and considering the username, Tails might be of interest if you are keen on maintaining a low profile on linux.
https://tails.boum.org/

edit:

On 28 December 2014, Der Spiegel published slides from an internal NSA presentation dating to June 2012 in which the NSA deemed Tails on its own as a "major threat" to its mission, and when used in conjunction with other privacy tools such as OTR, Cspace, RedPhone, and TrueCrypt was ranked as "catastrophic," leading to a "near-total loss/lack of insight to target communications, presence..."[13][14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tails_%28 ... 29#History

[wong]

It seems unlikely to me that there are any backdoors in Linux or just about any open source software.

Let's be honest: Who read the source code of the kernel and every single program he has installed on his computer, provided they compile them from source?
The vast majority of GNU/Linux users obtain their software through pre-compiled binaries. So even if someone verifies the source code of a certain application, who says it hasn't been modified after compilation and the pre-compiled binary doesn't actually do something different?

Edit: And even if you compile everything yourself, read and fully understand every single line of code, who says the compiler hasn't been tampered with?

And once you've got the perfect LFS, compiled from source which you have a deep understanding of, all you need is free & open source hardware to run it on.

[Fragezeichen]

It seems unlikely to me that there are any backdoors in Linux or just about any open source software.

Let's be honest: Who read the source code of the kernel and every single program he has installed on his computer, provided they compile them from source?
The vast majority of GNU/Linux users obtain their software through pre-compiled binaries. So even if someone verifies the source code of a certain application, who says it hasn't been modified after compilation and the pre-compiled binary doesn't actually do something different?

Edit: And even if you compile everything yourself, read and fully understand every single line of code, who says the compiler hasn't been tampered with?

And once you've got the perfect LFS, compiled from source which you have a deep understanding of, all you need is free & open source hardware to run it on.

No, you simply put your tinfoil hat on, go to the nearest electronics store, buy some transistors and build your own processor, graphics card, network card and all the hardware you need from scratch.

[wong]

Don't put on the tinfoil hat on when out at the shops, the cctv is programmed to flag up tinfoil hat wearers, it also raises red flags for other pedestrians. Use it in private spaces for private thoughts.

[dgoddard]

I am so paranoid that every time I see a thread like this I am leery to respond lest, "THEY", are monitoring it to see who rises to the bait ................ OH WAIT !
I guess I am not paranoid ! It is not paranoia if THEY really are trying to get you! .... And we know THEY are!

But really I have to wonder about people who put their lives on Facebook, Twitter, etc. On the other hand those sites may be protecting us by "data polluting" their efforts with all those key words that they search for.

Of course those guys are a bit paranoid about people trying to get around them. I wonder if during the various middle east turmoils their concern was real that the middle easterners were secretly communicating by using steganography (see at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography to hide messages in pictures posted on Russian pornographic web sites because the online prurient traffic into the middle east is so heavy that they could not only hide messages, they also had a cover to prevent "Traffic Analysis" (watching for who is talking to whom, see at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis

[xenopeek]

Topic locked because it's pointless to discuss "the article" without anybody here having read said article.

NSA_Dontspyoneme apparently is disinclined to acquiesce to the requests of jimallyn, Comso., M0em, and Habitual to share said article.