Linux hackers fall victim to crackers
The servers of open source development site SourceForge have been compromised.
Active subscribers to the site, which is owned by VA Linux, received the following terse message from its administrators.
"This week, one of our systems was compromised. We have promptly taken the necessary steps to correct this situation," the message said.
"You have been contacted, because according to our log files, you have used SourceForge during the past week and may have used the system that was compromised."
SourceForge has asked developers who used the system during the period when it was compromised to change the password but has supplied little in the way of further information on the attack. No information on the crack has been posted on SourceForge's Web site, and news of the security breach was only brought to light after a story was posted to Slashdot.
Details of what happened to SourceForge's servers remains extremely sketchy and the incident has raised a number of important questions. As well as how the attack happened, developers are also keen to know whether any data was stolen or corrupted.
SourceForge has 180,000 subscribed users involved in 21,000 open source development projects. The site uses an Apache Web server on Linux boxes.
