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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It’s a rootkit. A massive nightmare to diagnose and even harder to fix (or, at least to make sure that all traces of it is gone from your system). The reason for this is that it violates the OS’s “root of trust”, so now everything is untrustworthy.
Things like this is also why I think we should be moving to microkernels. Not to say that rootkits are impossible with those, but the attack surface is much smaller because the vast majority of traditional kernel things, like drivers, would be running in userland. It would also be much harder to compromise the whole system because most things are in userland, and also hard to keep the attack hidden from the IT staff.