Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Wouldn't this help solve the problem Ken Thompson wrote about in 'reflections on trusting trust?' If you can fully bootstrap a system from source code then it's harder to have things like back-doored compilers.



It indeed helps, but it is not a full 'solution': you could still in theory envision elaborate backdoors in the 'environment' in which the ISO is built. If you really want to 'solve' the problem describe there, you could look into Diverse Double Compiling (https://dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/) or bootstrapping the entire environment (https://bootstrappable.org/) - see also the 'Aren’t there bootstrap problems with the above approach?' section of the post.

Reproducing the build already goes a long way in making such attacks increasingly unlikely, though.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: