[Source code] Allwinner, a Chinese system-on-a-chip company that makes the CPU shipped a version of its Linux kernel with a backdoor

Posted by Mr_Unix@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 17 comments

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DrEarlChatman@reddit

Sorry to revive a dead post but I see this nowhere else on Reddit. Anbernic uses the Allwinner H700 chipset in their retro gaming emulators. Does this backdoor mean that my kids retro console is sending their info to the CCP or nah? Anbernic is open source and I'm not seeing red flags out there but thought I'd at least ask the magical Redditors their opinion on these. Thanks in advance\~!

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reconcile@reddit

This post is 9 years old, so it's not unlikely that that chipset is newer. If the mods lock this post due to age, make a new post with your questions and a link back here. Maybe include the title and maybe even the text, in case this post ever disappears...

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Bulky-Bug8089@reddit

What is this ALLWINNER CHIP for? I found out that someone I know is using it and I don't know what it is

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reconcile@reddit

Edited my other repy: "the chip that the CPU is built into..."

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reconcile@reddit

ALLWINNER makes the CPU, the chip it gets used on is a SoC aka system on a chip. Think like Raspberry Pi. You can run linux or whatever, and whatever programs/scripts on that.

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tkoham@reddit

Has anyone verified this independently? I don't own any allwinner devices

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Bulky-Bug8089@reddit

What is it for I just found someone is using it and I know it's not anything good can u explain what it is used for?

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Compizfox@reddit

But, the important question: did they release the source of the backdoor under the GPL? /s

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dack42@reddit

Well the source snippet is literally pasted in the article...

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DrummerHead@reddit

...but without a license

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

Do any of the licenses allow for printing in newspaper articles?

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riskable@reddit

I'm not sure that this function in itself is even copyrightable. It doesn't do anything novel or unique.

Regardless, it is but a tiny fraction of a much, much larger code base and therefore reprinting it would likely fall under fair use.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

Patentable. Copyright is automatically to the author.

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riskable@reddit

Copyright isn't automatic for everything though. For example, many years ago the phone companies tried to claim a copyright on phone books but it was rejected. Why? Because a phone book is merely a collection of facts and facts in and of themselves are not copyrightable.

Additionally, recipes are not copyrightable since they are merely lists of factual instructions. You can copyright a recipe book but not the individual recipes.

If a make a big ol' list of ENUMs in my code is that copyrightable? Absolutely not. Why? It's just a collection of facts.

The code in question here is mostly just a collection of non- creative (mostly factual) work... a bunch of UID and GID setting (to 0). One could argue that is neither novel not creative and therefore fundamentally not copyrightable.

I was not confusing patents with copyright :)

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