Linux kernel dev team

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MattKingUSA
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Linux kernel dev team

Post by MattKingUSA »

Edit: It was made clear to me by Largos that the reason the dev team had rejected commits was based on sanctions against the company of origin. This makes much more sense.


Original post

So the Linux kernel dev team have decided not to accept contributions from Russian organizations sighting that it makes them feel uncomfortable.

I understand the thoughts on every side of the issue but I believe code quality is a very important issue.

It wasn't that long ago that Alexander Popov contributed a security patch for the network stack.

In my opinion this is concerning as it has the potential to harm the quality of code in the kernel.

I also find it interesting that the kernel dev team didn't sight law or policy but a feeling of discomfort at the idea of accepting Russian contributions.

While this is understandable I don't agree that it's the technically sound move to make especially when it involves the security of the kernel.

What does everyone think about this discission?

-Matt :D

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by Impostor »

I think it's a stupid decision. That's all I have to say about it.

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by MattKingUSA »

I've written the author who wrote the patch for CVE-2017-2636 to get his opinion and find if this has affected him. I hope to hear back soon. Perhaps it's being reported incorrectly. Who knows.

-Matt :D

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by bluzee »

Can't blame the general population for what the leader is doing especially so when there is no actual way to vote the leader out.

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by tavasti »

Russia is dictature which does not care its reputation nor life of people. Regime there can extort people to do what ever they want. Therefore there is higher risk than normally to get some engineered security holes from russian devs. Therefore I think there should be skilled people to chekcing all code, or way was done right now. I fully understand decision.

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by MattKingUSA »

tavasti wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:08 pm

Russia is dictature which does not care its reputation nor life of people. Regime there can extort people to do what ever they want. Therefore there is higher risk than normally to get some engineered security holes from russian devs. Therefore I think there should be skilled people to chekcing all code, or way was done right now. I fully understand decision.

What you have said makes sense. However, I don't like the idea of Linux being proprietary to certain geographic areas. I agree that every proposed change must be scrutinized for malicious code but regardless of the authors nationality. A ban before any malicious code has been committed is unjustifiable in my opinion.

-Matt :D

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by Gps »

I would prefer Linux to stand above this political bs.

They should never just trust code from anybody, but I do not like this pointing to the Russians at all.

Brought to us by msn, we are are the good guys, Putin is the bad guy. :(

There is no we, I am not in war with Russia, my government seems to be though.

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by MattKingUSA »

I really don't like the idea of another CVE-2017-2636 going unpatched because of a developers nationality. Politicians will always make policy but they didn't even specify a policy in the quote I read. They simply expressed discomfort about accepting code based on nationality. If it's policy or law that's how it goes. But I wish they would have been more specific about why.

-Matt :D

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by Largos »

MattKingUSA wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 12:11 am

I really don't like the idea of another CVE-2017-2636 going unpatched because of a developers nationality. Politicians will always make policy but they didn't even specify a policy in the quote I read. They simply expressed discomfort about accepting code based on nationality. If it's policy or law that's how it goes. But I wish they would have been more specific about why.

It's not to do with their nationality from what I've seen, rather the company they work for. If you are referring to this:

https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230314103 ... ernel.org/

The person that got refused works for a company that is under sanction. That is a far more specific target.

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Re: Linux kernel dev team

Post by MattKingUSA »

That's very good to know. The article that I had read apparently misrepresented the situation or at least did not fully explain the situation. They framed a quote as if they were denied on the basis of nationality rather than for restrictions of sanction.

-Matt :D

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