Dammit. They are taking the last android syncthing client from us.
While it’s probably fine, it’s also worth remembering the FBI’s Operation Trojan Shield happened. Similar state sponsored APTs would be very happy to get into such a privileged position.
I really don’t see why there are so many people around saying “it’s probably fine”
In my personal opinion shit like this is probably not fine at all.
For me that’s an uninstall unfortunately and looking for another solution at the moment.
I really don’t see why there are so many people around saying “it’s probably fine”
Because there is currently no direct evidence of anything amiss. From the linked article:
Technically, the changes made so far have been reviewed by some people and no obvious malicious modifications have been found; F-Droid also builds the app reproducibly and verifies whether the published code matches the binaries
Granted, someone could be playing a long game here. Get control, wait for the controversy to die down while playing nice, then do then rug pull when no one is watching anymore. That’s possible. It’s also quite possible that the previous maintainer got tired of doing a hard and thankless job for no pay and wanted to shed the whole thing. They found someone to hand it off to, and the new maintainer is just shit at open communications. That happens and is also possible. Whether or not it makes you change your usage of the package is down to your risk appetite. But, jumping at every shadow gets old quick and at some point you have to accept some risk. So, unless and until there is more evidence to backup the claim of foul play; or, if you have a really low risk appetite, this is one of those things which falls under “keep an ear open, but it’s probably fine”.
Because there is currently no direct evidence of anything amiss.
You don’t need direct evidence of a problem. It’s the other way around — In order for the software to be trustable with private data you need steady, ongoing evidence that the authors are trustworthy.
National spy agencies are out there, right now, and recently in the news, trying to suborn open source project maintainers. This is a known risk.
Of note in this article is the mention of nel0x’s fork of Syncthing-Fork, which is, as much as I’ve gathered, and old contributor to Syncthing and more trusted member of the community than researchxxl, as well as much more transparent about the whole changing of hands of the Syncthing-Fork project.
This issue on researchxxl’s fork might also be of interest, as it documents the (lack of) response to the whole sketchiness of what is happening, as well as more discussion.
