- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
transcript
Screenshot of github showing part of the commit message of this commit with this text:
Remove the backdoor found in 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 (CVE-2024-3094).
While the backdoor was inactive (and thus harmless) without inserting
a small trigger code into the build system when the source package was
created, it's good to remove this anyway:
- The executable payloads were embedded as binary blobs in
the test files. This was a blatant violation of the
Debian Free Software Guidelines.
- On machines that see lots bots poking at the SSH port, the backdoor
noticeably increased CPU load, resulting in degraded user experience
and thus overwhelmingly negative user feedback.
- The maintainer who added the backdoor has disappeared.
- Backdoors are bad for security.
This reverts the following without making any other changes:
The sentence “This was a blatant violation of the Debian Free Software Guidelines” is highlighted.
Below the github screenshot is a frame of the 1998 film The Big Lebowski with the meme caption “What, are you a fucking park ranger now?” from the scene where that line was spoken.
I don’t get the joke
Its like saying bank robbery is against bank’s gun carrying policy.
Sure its true, but thats not really the problem being addressed. The massive, notorious security vulnerability is.
Oh the big lebowsky part, i dont get it either
Yep, probably because it’s not funny or clever. My guess is that you look for funny and/or clever in your jokes.
Someone explained it, turns out it’s just not my kind of joke. I get it now tho
I’m still lost… I’ve been following the XZ thing since it broke, so I get the context, but I’m not sure how the meme at the bottom is connected?
On the photo you see a violation of rules listed as one of the reasons this commit is made. Because it’s at the top the meme creator is presuming that’s their main priority.
And they disagree with that, so they’re calling them a “park ranger”. I’m guessing they’re alluding to an old but common media presentation of park rangers being childish about rules.
I get the joke with that it looks a bit odd to put that reason at the top of the list, but their response I find more unkind than funny
As the image transcript in the post body explains, the image at the bottom is a scene from a well-known 1998 film (which, according to Wikipedia, was in 2014 selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”).
This meme will not make as much sense to people who have not seen the film. You can watch the referenced scene here. The context is that the main character, The Dude (played by Jeff Bridges) has recently had his private residence invaded by a group of nihilists with a pet marmot (actually portrayed by a ferret) and they have threatened to “cut off his Johnson”. In an attempt to express sympathy, The Dude’s friend Walter (played by John Goodman) points out that, in addition to the home invasion and threats, the nihilists’ exotic pet is also illegal. The Dude’s retort “what, are you a fucking park ranger now” is expressing irritation with that observation, because it is insignificant compared with the threat of the removal of his penis.
This meme attempts to draw a parallel between this humorous scene and XZ developer Lasse Collin’s observation that the XZ backdoor was also a violation of Debian’s software licensing policies.
Thank you for reading my artist’s statement.