Reflections on Trusting Trust [was: Re: Solaris telnet ...]

[Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org>]

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007, Darren Reed wrote:
> How about putting a backdoor into your C compiler such that it
> generates "special code" when it recognises it is compiling
> /bin/login that allows special access?

Once every 2 years or so I have the chance of mailing in a reference to
the best security paper ever written (or one of the..). It is not just
about compilers, but about the most basic concept in security.

Reflections on Trusting Trust - Ken Thompson
http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/

        Gadi.