In an unexpected turn of events which sent Linux into a jizzy, the head of the Linux Mint project Clement Lefebvre said that the Linux Mint website had been compromised and that the hackers were able to edit the site to point to a malicious ISO of Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition. The only people on the safer side are those who have downloaded the Cinnamon edition prior to Saturday.
Clement Lefebvre, the project head clearly explained in his blog post that how users can check the MD5 signature of any ISO that they think might be infected. Users who did not have an infected ISO were advised to delete the ISO, trash discs where the ISO has been burnt, and format USB sticks where the ISO was burnt.
Clement further gave clear directions on what are the do’s and dont’s for those who used an ISO file to download the Cinnamon edition on their computer.
1. Take the computer offline,
2. Backup personal data,
3. Reinstall the OS (with a clean ISO) or format the partition,
4. And change passwords to sites you used – especially email accounts.
Users of the said edition who used an ISO to download were advised to go through the following process to save themselves from an malicious attack on their personal computers. As the news of the ISO file being malicious spread, people went into a havoc but as things stand now, the ISOs on the Mint website are now clean – only those who downloaded an ISO on Saturday 20th, February need to be concerned.
Linux which has in the past received critical acclaim for its relatively high security and hack-immune OS would now be extra cautious and the think-tank at Linux would now be all ready for the next challenge.
Source:-Linux Mint Blog
