This sort of thing is analogous to the "Thompson hack" [1], where a malicious compiler has a self-propagating backdoor. It never shows up in the source code, bu

This sort of thing is analogous to the "Thompson hack" [1], where a malicious compiler has a self-propagating backdoor. It never shows up in the source code, but self-injects into the binaries. Thompson demonstrated this under controlled conditions. But realistically, the backdoor begins to approach AGI-level cunning to evade attempts at detection. It has to keep functioning and propagating as the hardware and software evolve, while still keeping a profile (size, execution time, etc.) low enough to continue evading detection. Work like this that rebuilds modern computing on a completely different foundation, would seriously disrupt and complicate the use of this type of backdoor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdoor_(computing)#Compiler_backdoors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdoor_(computing)#Compiler_...