GNU IFUNC, Not xz-utils, Is the Real Culprit Behind CVE-2024-3094 Backdoor
By
foltik
24d ago· 14 min readenCode
98/100
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Summary
This article argues that the real culprit behind CVE-2024-3094 (the xz-utils backdoor) is not the malicious code injection itself, but rather two longstanding design decisions in critical open source software: GNU IFUNC (indirect functions) and related mechanisms. The author contends that focusing on how malicious code entered the xz-utils repo misses the bigger picture, and that the IFUNC mechanism enabled the sophisticated attack that nearly compromised global SSH servers.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledCVE-2024-3094, more commonly known as 'The xz-utils backdoor', was a near miss for global cybersecurity.
Had this attack not been discovered in the nick of time by Andres Freund, most of our planet's SSH servers would have begun granting root access to the party behind this attack.
Unfortunately, too much analysis has focused on how malicious code made its way into the xz-utils repo.
Instead, I'd like to argue that two longstanding design decisions in critical open source software are what made this attack possible.
GNU IFUNC is the real culprit behind CVE-2024-3094 - robertdfrench/ifuncd-up
