> This post was inspired by another post about exactly the same thing. I couldn't find it when I looked for it, so I wrote this. All credit to the original author for noticing how interesting this rabbit hole is.
I think the author may be thinking of Ken Thompson's Turing Award lecture "Reflections on Trusting Trust".
Although that presentation does point out that the technique is more generally used in quines. Given that there is a fair amount of research, papers and commentary on quines, it's possible that the author may have read something along those lines.
I think the author may be thinking of Ken Thompson's Turing Award lecture "Reflections on Trusting Trust".