Security News > 2021 > April > Linux bans University of Minnesota for committing malicious code
In a rare, groundbreaking decision, Linux kernel project maintainers have imposed a ban on the University of Minnesota from contributing to the open-source Linux project.
The move comes after a group of UMN researchers were caught submitting a series of malicious code commits, or patches that deliberately introduced security vulnerabilities in the official Linux codebase, as a part of their research activities.
Today, a major Linux kernel developer, Greg Kroah-Hartman has banned the University of Minnesota from contributing to the open-source Linux kernel project.
The focus of this research was to deliberately introduce known security vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel, by submitting malicious or insecure code patches.
The researchers also stated that any patch suggestions were made via email exchanges and never made it into any code branch, or the Linux kernel.
The research method used raised serious concerns in the Linux Kernel community and, as of today, this has resulted in the University being banned from contributing to the Linux Kernel.