> Russian locale kill switch: Exits silently if system locale begins with "ru", checking Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().locale and environment variables LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LANGUAGE, and LANG

So bold and so cowards at the same time...

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NewsaHackO 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The worst thing is that you can't even tell if that's "real" or just a false flag.

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embedding-shape 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Does it matter? Lots of groups do such checks at startup at this point, because every news outlet who reports on it suddenly believe the group to be Russian if you do, so it's a no brainer to add today to misdirect even a little.

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NewsaHackO 3 hours ago | parent [-]

My point is that it could still be Russia, as they know that we know it is used as a false flag.

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embedding-shape 3 hours ago | parent [-]

My point is; what changes if we knew for a fact it was Russia or that it was someone else?

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NewsaHackO 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>My point is; what changes if we knew for a fact it was Russia or that it was someone else?

Is this a serious question?

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yonatan8070 an hour ago | parent [-]

Sounds serious to me

It's highly unlikely that the people behind an attack like this would come out (non-anonimously) and take credit. And it's unlikely they'll be caught. So does it matter to most peoplee if it's Russians, Americans, Iranians, North Koreans, or some other country?

If you're a 3-letter agency, you'd want to know and potentially arrest them, but as a random guy on the internet, or even a maintainer, I really don't think it matters.

	▲	NewsaHackO 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		So if it came out that the NSA was attempting to put backdoors in consumer password managers, it wouldn't change the context of the side channel attack? How about if it was a company (like Google)? It seemed like an unserious question because I can't understand how someone would think something like that wouldn't change the situation.

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john_strinlai an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

for most people, nothing.

for threat intel people, a lot.

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bell-cot 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Discretion is the better part of valor", "Never point it at your own feet", "Russian roulette is best enjoyed as a spectator", and many other sayings seem applicable.

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testfrequency 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Smells like blackmail from another nation..

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hypeatei 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That isn't a smoking gun. I think it was the Vault7 leaks which showed that the NSA and CIA deliberately leave trails like this to obfuscate which nation state did it. I'm sure other state actors do this as well, and it's not a particularly "crazy" technique.

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iririririr 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

ah yes, because everyone sets locale on their npm publish github CI job.

obvious misdirection, but it does serve to make it very obvious it was a state actor.

	▲	embedding-shape 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> but it does serve to make it very obvious it was a state actor Lol no, lots of groups do this, non-state ones too.