#116 - Intel Chat: XZ Utils

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community Slack channel.

On March 29, 2024 defenders became aware that a backdoor was intentionally planted inside of XZ Utils an open source data compression utility available on many installations of Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. The threat actors behind this implant likely spent years on this operation and were very close to getting the backdoor merged into Debian and Redhat before it was discovered.

The original disclosure email can be found here.

A technical break down of the compromise can be found here.

A Wired article covering the compromise in-depth can be found here.