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That's a kneejerk reaction that will likely have more negative consequences than positive ones, and it likely wouldn't even have helped in this case. Do you thi
by elric 3y ago
That's a kneejerk reaction that will likely have more negative consequences than positive ones, and it likely wouldn't even have helped in this case. Do you think that sophisticated actors, especially state level actors, aren't capable of giving fake IDs to people? Or to have a web of equally fake identities vouch for someone?
Every project potentially has security implications. A package that's used for compression today could be linked to an SSH server tomorrow. Something as banal as a todo list could be a potential attack vector in the right hands.
I don't know what the solution to this problem is. Better verification of dependencies, certainly, but how? More investment by corporate users of FOSS into security? But no matter what we do, "who's watching the watchmen" will remain a valid question.
I'm actually quite impressed that this was found as quickly as it has, though it makes me wary that there might be other, as yet unfound, such attacks.
- avsteele 3y agoYour point is well-taken, but see my reply below. Stopping state-backed level actors might not be possible, but we can make it harder for cyber-criminals. Has it been shown this is by a state-level actor?
- elric 3y ago> but we can make it harder for cyber-criminals Why? Still throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Is there a huge number of problematic open source commits by "cyber criminals"? Would this even stop them? Doubtful. Will this make it harder for bona fide people to contribute? Certainly.