this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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Evidence suggests this isn't the case.
We know of so many more closed source backdoors despite them being harder to notice in practice. Either before they became a problem or after they have been used in an attack. So we know backdoors can get noticed even without access to source code.
Meanwhile we have comparatively fewer backdoor type findings in major open source software, despite and thanks to increased scrutiny. So many people want to pad their resume with "findings" and go hit up open source software relentlessly. This can be obnoxious because many of the findings are flat out incorrect or have no actual security implications, but among the noise is a relatively higher likelihood that real issues get noticed.
The nature of the xz attack shows the increased complexity associated with attempting to back door open source. Sneaking a malicious binary patch into test data, because the source code would be too obvious, and having to hide asking the patch in an obfuscated way in build scripts that would only apply in theory under specific circumstances. Meanwhile the closed source backdoors have frequently been pretty straightforward but still managed to ship and not be detected.
Even if we failed to detect unused backdoors, at some point someone would actually want to use their backdoor, so they should be found at some point.
I'm not sure how you can provide evidence that one thing has fewer unknown unknowns than another thing.
By relative volume of the known things. It's not a guarantee, but it's highly suggestive that the more observable instances of something, the more not yet observed instances of the same thing are out there.
There are factors that can knock that out of balance, like not having access to source code making things harder to find, but those confounding factors would hide more on the closed source side than the open source side.