The Linux Foundation has closed its websites for maintenance after discovering a security breach late last week – despite the common belief that sites running on Liunux are near-impossible to hack.
The Foundation says it believes the attack is linked to a similar intrusion into the kernel.org Linux archive site last month. It says it’s aiming to get services back up as quickly as possible.
“As with any intrusion and as a matter of caution, you should consider the passwords and SSH keys that you have used on these sites compromised, warns the Foundation in a statement.
“If you have reused these passwords on other sites, please change them immediately. We are currently auditing all systems and will update this statement when we have more information.”
“I’m still struggling to decide quite what the Loony Linux Lovers – those who insist that Linux is immune to malware – will make of this episode. Whilst Linux malware is not new, this is probably the closest it has ever come to the heart of their beloved operating system,” says security expert Paul Ducklin of Sophos.
“The ‘Linux has magic security smoke’ proselytisers will be compelled to admit that insecurity isn’t just about Microsoft, and will be forced to improve their public attitude to security in general. The ‘Linux is a nothing more than a hobby product’ naysayers will be compelled to admit that the operating system really is part of the Big Time.”
Meanwhile, the kernel.org site, which houswes the Linux kernel itself, is also still down. The company says that the source code repositories haven’t been affected.
