Linux Mint got Hacked

[oldtimer50]

It appears Linux mint 17.3 ISO got hacked read about here http://itsfoss.com/linux-mint-hacked/#more-9722
I find it interesting they allegedly know the IP address and the 3 people and what country, quick work'
I wonder if they treat this has a warning and get some antivirus, because the more popular Linux becomes the more of a target it will become, although in this case antivirus may not have helped.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Antivirus wouldn't help at all as I assume the ISO has backdoors in it. The only thing that can help that would be hash MD5 codes stored on a separate system that you can confirm before downloading.

 

[nlinecomputers]

The other thing of note unless you downloaded Mint in the past two days you are fine. If you just downloaded mint and installed it then you need to remove it from all networks backup your data, dban the drive, and then change every damn password you use on everything.

 

[Markverhyden]

Hard to say about the AV thing. The authors need to be able to characterize a file to detect it. And if they are using some modified script rather than a compromised binary I'm not so sure that an AV would detect that. If it was me I'd do as @nlinecomputers said. Start with a tabula rasa on anything that had touched that machine. Drastic I know, but you can never know these people had cooked up.

 

[ZenTree]

I find it interesting they allegedly know the IP address and the 3 people and what country, quick work'

Not that much work once they spotted it, . From reading the article they relinked the downloads to an IP address, easy to find. This IP is associated with Bulgaria. The domain name the backdoor points to is also linked to there. I'm assuming they got the three names purely by doing a lookup on the domain and as they state:

"We don’t know their roles (those 3 people who are linked to the IP) in this, but if we ask for an investigation, this is where it will start."

I'd be amazed if the hackers were that sloppy though. Actually.. I take it back. I wouldn't be surprised at all.

 

[jzukerman]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/hacker-hundreds-were-tricked-into-installing-linux-mint-backdoor/

 

[PcTek9]

While Linux is a very strong, very safe os. It is relatively easy to create malware for linux desktops. But in this particular case what was actually done was that they used Clem's credentials to modify the os itself. Personally I would hate to have someone like clem angry at me, and be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. Not to mention the plethora of linux gods who frown on this type of behavior. Woe unto you.