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An Anonymous Coward writes:

xz-utils are compromised and inject malicious code

= Debian:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2024/msg00057.html [debian.org]
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-3094 [debian.org]

Debian Security Advisory DSA-5649-1
[SECURITY] [DSA 5649-1] xz-utils security update

Package : xz-utils
CVE ID : CVE-2024-3094

Andres Freund discovered that the upstream source tarballs for xz-utils,
the XZ-format compression utilities, are compromised and inject
malicious code, at build time, into the resulting liblzma5 library.

Right now no Debian stable versions are known to be affected.
Compromised packages were part of the Debian testing, unstable and
experimental distributions, with versions ranging from 5.5.1alpha-0.1
(uploaded on 2024-02-01), up to and including 5.6.1-1. The package has
been reverted to use the upstream 5.4.5 code, which we have versioned
5.6.1+really5.4.5-1.

Users running Debian testing and unstable are urged to update the
xz-utils packages.

For the detailed security status of xz-utils please refer to
its security tracker page at:
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/xz-utils [debian.org]

Further information about Debian Security Advisories, how to apply
these updates to your system and frequently asked questions can be
found at: https://www.debian.org/security/ [debian.org]

Mailing list: debian-security-announce@lists.debian.org

= Red Hat:

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/urgent-security-alert-fedora-41-and-rawhide-users [redhat.com]

"What distributions are affected by this malicious code?

Current investigation indicates that the packages are only present in Fedora 41 and Fedora Rawhide within the Red Hat community ecosystem.

No versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are affected.

We have reports and evidence of the injections successfully building in xz 5.6.x versions built for Debian unstable (Sid). Other distributions may also be affected. Users of other distributions should consult with their distributors for guidance."

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4 [openwall.com]

= OpenWall: (With more details at openwall link above)

"After observing a few odd symptoms around liblzma (part of the xz package) on
Debian sid installations over the last weeks (logins with ssh taking a lot of
CPU, valgrind errors) I figured out the answer:

The upstream xz repository and the xz tarballs have been backdoored.

At first I thought this was a compromise of debian's package, but it turns out
to be upstream."

Original Submission