The most backdoor-looking bug I’ve ever seen (2021)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25726068 (2021) I am moving my newsletter archives to my blog, and the issues must have hit the RSS feed, even if the pages are not well annotated yet.
A very under appreciated aspect of Telegram’s protocol is that it’s designed by very, very weird people. Telegram scooped up a lot of winners of ACM ICPC contests in Russia, some of whom I’ve personally met, and the design of the protocol is exactly in line with the code these people generally write. It’s really a showcase of how very high IQ and outstanding mathematical abilities mix with a distrust of existing technologies and a lack of expert intuition coming…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 324
- Total comments
- 187
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-01-20 | The most backdoor-looking bug I’ve ever seen (2021)First breakout · Best thread | ssklash | 173 | 77 |
| 2024-05-09 | The Most Backdoor-Looking Bug I'VE Ever Seen (2021) | 882542F3884314B | 6 | 0 |
| 2024-05-10 | The most backdoor-looking bug I've ever seen (2021)Latest 20+ point return | takoid | 145 | 110 |