Security breach on kernel.org

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Sep 1, 2011

“Earlier this month, a number of servers in the kernel.org
infrastructure were compromised. We discovered this August 28th.
While we currently believe that the source code repositories were
unaffected, we are in the process of verifying this and taking
steps to enhance security across the kernel.org infrastructure.

What happened?

Intruders gained root access on the server Hera. We believe they
may have gained this access via a compromised user credential; how
they managed to exploit that to root access is currently unknown
and is being investigated.
Files belonging to ssh (openssh, openssh-server and
openssh-clients) were modified and running live.
A trojan startup file was added to the system start up scripts

…We are also currently auditing all security policies to make
kernel.org more secure, but are confident that our systems,
specifically git, have excellent design to prevent real damage from
these types of attacks.

Complete Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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