Short Takes – 4-2-24

Trash from the International Space Station may have hit a house in Florida. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “If NASA confirms the projectile that fell through Otero's house last month came from the ISS, it would join a small handful of incidents when an object falling out of orbit damaged someone's property.”

What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “Any library can tamper with the inner workings of any executable it is linked against. Often, the developer of the executable will establish a link to a library that's needed for it to work properly. OpenSSH, the most popular sshd implementation, doesn’t link the liblzma library, but Debian and many other Linux distributions add a patch to link sshd to systemd, a program that loads a variety of services during the system bootup. Systemd, in turn, links to liblzma, and this allows xz Utils to exert control over sshd.”

Space is essential for infrastructure. Why isn’t it considered critical? CyberScoop.com article. Pull quote: “Another open question is which space system assets should be considered critical infrastructure, since many assets in the sector already have that designation. Launch facilities, for example, are covered under government facilities, and commercial satellites fall under both the telecommunications sector as well as the defense industrial base. Creating a new space systems sector could pull out those assets, along with the existing communication and coordination structures. Other systems, such as commercial remote sensing operations and scientific satellites like weather tracking and forecasting systems, are not a part of critical infrastructure, according to a report by CSC 2.0, which advocates for the critical infrastructure designation.”

Radian Aerospace updates its space plane design and hints at coming attractions. GeekWire.com article. Pull quote: “Holder said Radian One could also play a part in Defense Department missions relating to intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and space domain awareness. The space plane concept is meant to support on-demand launch within 90 minutes, the capability to land on any runway that’s long enough, and a 48-hour mission turnaround time.”

FBI offers reward for information in Torrance electrical station sabotage. NBCLosAneles.com article. Pull quote: “[FBI Assistant Special Agent] Dalton said the motive for the Torrance attack won't be known until the person responsible is caught but added the FBI has investigated a number of power station sabotage incidents in recent years.