Trojan horse attacks GNU Project

Malicious code recently compromised the FTP server for the GNU Project, a developer site for many components in the Open-source Linux Operating System.

The attack happened in March 2003, according to a statement from GNU’s sponsor – the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The compromise was a Trojan horse that was installed on the root system of GNU’s servers. The Trojan had been on the server system for several months and had gone unnoticed by the GNU until late July.

A local user sparked the attack and was collecting passwords and attempting to use the site as a launching point to attack other machines, the FSF said.

After what it deemed a substantial investigation verifying the integrity of the software, the FSF said they didn’t think that any GNU source code had been compromised. In the statement, the FSF warned people who have downloaded software from the server since March to double-check the source code. Searches for standard source Trojans have turned up dry and a list of files that have not been checked are listed in the root directory as missing-files.

CERT, a major reporting centre for Internet security problems got wind of the attack and issued a separate advisory on Wednesday about the compromise.

Because the system serves as a centralized archive of popular software, the insertion of malicious code into the distributed software is a serious threat, CERT said in the statement. They then echoed FSF’s statement that no source code distributions have been maliciously modified at this time.

Launched in 1984, The GNU Project develops a complete, free, Unix-like operating system. GNU is a recursive acronym for GNU’s Not Unix.

GNU is online at www.gnu.org. More information about the hack can be found on this site.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

IT World Canada Staff
IT World Canada Staffhttp://www.itworldcanada.com/
The online resource for Canadian Information Technology professionals.

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now