Linux IRC Server Gets Trojan, Press Harps On Linux Security
Linked by Jordan Spencer Cunningham on Mon 14th Jun 2010 23:58 UTC
Bugs & Viruses Recently, the Linux version of UnrealIRCd was discovered to have had a Trojan worm its way into the source code. Even more embarrassing for the developers of Unreal is that the Trojan's been holding open the backdoor in the source code since November of 2009-- not very recently. And, of course, bloggers and press in general are taking the opportunity of another breach in Linux security to point out doomsday devices that don't really exist.
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lemur2
Member since:
2007-02-17

what does this have to do with Linux/*BSD/etc?


Here you go, read a quick summary:
http://www.itworld.com/security/110942/linux-secure-ever?source=sml...

Here's what really happened. UnrealIRCd, a rather obscure open-source IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server, wasn't so much hacked as the program it was letting people download has been replaced by one with a built-in security hole.

...

So what does that mean? First, there's no new, or old for that matter, security hole in Linux at all. What happened was that this one group let someone replace the program they were shipping with one that had been deliberately designed to let other people into it to run commands on your Linux computer.

There's nothing too surprising about this. Historically, IRC, which is sort of a CB radio of instant messaging services, has always had one major security problem after another. Indeed, IRC has often been used in the past to run Windows botnets. I strongly suspect whoever replaced the UnrealIRCd has been using it for running Windows botnets.

...

Let me spell it out for you. Even before this latest fiasco, no one who cares about security was letting IRC clients or servers run on their systems. It's always been too easy to abuse.

In this particular case, the group behind UnrealIRCd were just dumb about tracking their own program. Clearly, they never bothered to check their own code. The users, by virtue of the fact that they were running IRC in the first place, don't get any prizes for being bright either. After all, they were running IRC: Case closed.

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