Security A Problem for Windows Only?
* gnuftp, the FTP server for the GNU project was root compromised. A
replacement machine was rolled out in its place on the morning
(Eastern time) of 2003-08-02.
* After substantial investigation, we don't believe that any GNU
source has been compromised.
* To be extra-careful, we are verifying known, trusted secure
checksums of all files before putting them back on the FTP site.
That process began on 2003-08-02 and is ongoing.
Events Concerning Cracking of Gnuftp
A root compromise and a Trojan horse were discovered on gnuftp.gnu.org,
the FTP server of the GNU project. The machine appears to have been
cracked in March 2003, but we only discovered the crack in the last week
of July 2003. The modus operandi of the cracker shows that (s)he was
interested primarily in using gnuftp to collect passwords and as a
launching point to attack other machines. It appears that the machine was
cracked using a ptrace exploit by a local user immediately after the
exploit was posted.
(For the ptrace bug, a root-shell exploit was available on 17 March 2003,
and a working fix was not available on linux-kernel until the following
week. Evidence found on the machine indicates that gnuftp was cracked
during that week.)
This is the server that hosts the sources for all GNU projects, including GCC - the compiler used by most open source developers. Imagine the possibilities for putting trojans into some of the most used open source software. Apparently they didn't have backups, or what they had were also compromised. Thankfully they have checksums that they can verify the source code against.
I guess security doesn't only affect Windows, but nothing else makes interesting news.