A Microsoft engineer notices irregularities and possibly prevents a global hacker attack. The tech scene celebrates the German as a hero.
The 38-year-old software engineer Andres Freund lives in San Francisco and works at Microsoft. As the New York Times reports, the German-born programmer may have prevented a huge cyberattack.
During routine maintenance work over Easter, Freund found irregularities in software that is part of the Linux operating system (see info box), it goes on to say. After an extensive search, he discovered manipulations in the software tool “XZ Utils”, a data compression project used by many Linux variants.
What is Linux?
Linux is an operating system similar to Windows or macOS. It is free and open source, the source code is accessible to everyone – it is also considered versatile, stable and secure. Linux is the world’s most widely used operating system for web servers, databases and cloud computing. The software of banks, hospitals, governments and the world’s top-selling companies are also based on the system.
The manipulated “XZ Utils” may have been “the most widespread and effective backdoor ever introduced into a software product,” said renowned security expert Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former head of security. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also warns of a serious security gap.
“Master key for hundreds of millions of computers”
If the malicious code had remained undetected, Stamos said, the backdoor “would have given its creators a master key to hundreds of millions of computers around the world.” With this they could have stolen private information, introduced malware or caused major disruptions to the infrastructure – all without being caught.
In the article, The New York Times compares the German software expert to a bakery worker who “smells freshly baked bread, notices that something is wrong and concludes that someone has tampered with the entire world’s yeast supply.”
Engineer speaks of “surreal” experience
Freund, who describes himself to the paper as a private person “who just sits in front of the computer and hacks away at the code,” speaks of a surreal experience after his discovery: “There were moments when I thought that I had probably just had a bad night’s sleep and had fever dreams.”
It is not known who was behind the attack. However, researchers believe only a nation with massive hacking capabilities, such as Russia or China, could have tried it.
Since his findings became known, Freund has also helped reverse the attack and identify the culprit. The BSI has asked those responsible for IT security to check their systems and initiate countermeasures.