

Linux creator admits NSA demanded backdoor - lowkey
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/19/linux_creator_admits_nsa_demanded_backdoor/

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lowkey
Per the eWeek article referenced by salon.com, 'NSA Backdoor Torvalds was also
asked if he had ever been approached by the U.S. government to insert a
backdoor into Linux. Torvalds responded "no" while nodding his head "yes," as
the audience broke into spontaneous laughter.'
[http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-
de...](http://www.eweek.com/developer/linus-torvalds-talks-linux-development-
at-linuxcon.html)

~~~
dalke
It's a joke.

Granted, it could be truth wrapped in joke to make it bearable.

But it's impossible to infer from that response that it's supposed to be taken
seriously or contain even a grain of truth.

A real journalist would have, oh, I don't know ... tried to contact Torvalds
and ask for clarification?

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stevep98
I wonder how that conversation went?...

"Like anyone else, submit a patch subject to the review of the community... If
your backdoor passes scrutiny, it gets in..."

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brubaker
The response was meant to be a joke but the question was pretty legit and left
somewhat unanswered.

I think it was about 5-6 years ago but there was a case where a backdoor was
hacked into the source code, it was pretty subtle for a change but was caught
because of how it was done.

~~~
Walkman
Isn't it very hard to do it without noticing in such a huge OSS project like
linux? So many people keep their eyes on changes.

