My mastodon feed is full of IT security specialist talking about the xz affair where someone let a backdoor in some library.

But beside showing the two side of Free/Libre software (anybody can add a backdoor, and anybody can spot it), I have no idea how it impacts the average person. Is it a common library or something used only by specific application ? Would my home-grade router protects me ?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    I don’t even have xz installed on my machine. Could anyone clue me in for what it is normally used?

    • person@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      It’s a library/tool for a specific type of compression. You may have seen .tar.xz files.