At the core of all Linux based operating systems is the Linux kernel, which is developed by a global community of developers, with the kernel.org website as a key piece of infrastructure.
Kernel.org maintainers admitted on Wednesday that their infrastructure had been hacked via a compromised user credential. According to Kernel.org’s disclosure, the attackers were able to modify files as well as add a Trojan startup file. Kernel.org isn’t pushing the panic button, however, thanks to the inherent security of the overall Linux kernel development process.
“The Linux community and kernel.org take the security of the kernel.org domain extremely seriously, and are pursuing all avenues to investigate this attack and prevent future ones,” Kernel.org stated. “However, it’s also useful to note that the potential damage of cracking kernel.org is far less than typical software repositories.”
