As both developer and a systems administrator, I am constantly on both sides of the fence. I have seen developers who cannot even maintain their machines and download any random thing to streamline their job to the detriment of security. Yet, I have seen other organizations where it takes months to get something like VSCode installed (try keeping that up-to-date on an air-gapped machine, that isn't connected to the internet... or ... Node.js or... full Visual Studio...)
Ah yes - gotta love the HN pedantry - you are of course technically correct, however - a library used by Notepad++ was compromised for a period of time.
> a library used by Notepad++ was compromised for a period of time
Nothing at the referenced URL corroborates how you are representing the referenced URL.
According to the URL, the CIA was replacing one of Notepad++'s components w/ another in order to run code on the user's system and stay hidden. Nothing in that links indicates that that replacement is done through any breach in security in Notepad++ itself, and AFAICT, they're using it merely as a good hiding place. The Notepad++ announcement fixes no particular bugs, but merely signs the code.
> Ah yes - gotta love the HN pedantry - you are of course technically correct, however - a library used by Notepad++ was compromised for a period of time.
No, it wasn't either. The security "issue" was that a shared library loaded by Notepad++ could be replaced with a compromised one. At no point did either Notepad++ or the library authors distribute a compromised version of that library.
Being able to replace shared libraries is not a security issue, it's the number one (or number two, depending on who you ask) reason for having shared libraries in the first place. It's like saying that if I compiled a custom version of glibc and installed it on a computer, the entirety of the GNU ecosystem was compromised.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/notepad-7.3.3-fix-cia-hac...
As both developer and a systems administrator, I am constantly on both sides of the fence. I have seen developers who cannot even maintain their machines and download any random thing to streamline their job to the detriment of security. Yet, I have seen other organizations where it takes months to get something like VSCode installed (try keeping that up-to-date on an air-gapped machine, that isn't connected to the internet... or ... Node.js or... full Visual Studio...)