I\u2019ve written at least twice about Ken Thompson\u2019s Turing Award Lecture, Reflections on Trusting Trust<\/i> and each time I told you to be sure to read it. It describes one of the\u2014if not the\u2014greatest hacks of all time. In the talk and the paper that recapitulates it, Thompson describes how he modified the C compiler to insert a backdoor into the Unix If you ignored my strong urging to read the paper don\u2019t worry. Vivek Haldar had done it for you and produced a short video describing it<\/a>. Watch Haldar\u2019s video to see how Thompson pulled off his trick but then you really should the paper itself<\/a>. It\u2019s short, easy to read, and entertaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve written at least twice about Ken Thompson\u2019s Turing Award Lecture, Reflections on Trusting Trust and each time I told you to be sure to read it. It describes one of the\u2014if not the\u2014greatest hacks of all time. In the … Continue reading login<\/code> command and arranged to have all signs of the code removed from the compiler\u2019s source while keeping it in the binary. In a way, the paper is terrifying and after reading it, you\u2019ll never fully trust your tools again.<\/p>\n