Reflections on trusting trust

  • Authors:
  • Ken Thompson

  • Affiliations:
  • AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ

  • Venue:
  • Communications of the ACM
  • Year:
  • 1984

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Abstract

To what extent should one trust a statement that a program is free of Trojan horses? Perhaps it is more important to trust the people who wrote the software.