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Comment on XZ: Repo maintainer Lasse Collin responding on LKMLparent

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Edit: also, why should a package like ssh have so many random dependencies? They should make sure these kind of packages have the least of dependencies especially on these kind of packages that have one maintainer to reduce the security risks?

Using standard libraries for common stuff like compression, cryptography and whatnot is vastly more preferable over everyone shipping their own crypto, or worse, patches of crypto (see the Debian SSH key vulnerability of 2008 for an example [1]). For protocols it's in the end just as bad, it's a nightmare to keep different versions of the same program to be able to talk to each other, but now imagine a literal ton of programs who all have a wild mixture of statically shipped libraries, homegrown stuff that has barely been tested... no, just no. Not a world I'd like to live in.

[1] https://jblevins.org/log/ssh-vulnkey

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