David A. Wheeler has proposed a counter to this attack using an approach he calls “diverse double-compiling”, which uses techniques adapted from compiler bootstrapping. This involves re-compiling the source of the compiler through another independently-written and generated “trusted” compiler, and then using the binary generated from this to recompile the original compiler again, and then comparing the binary generated from this second compilation with that generated from using the original compiler to recompile itself directly.

— Wikipedia on Backdoor (computing)

2011.05.16 Monday ACHK