The xz package that has already entered the current F40 pre-release versions/variants and rawhide contains malicious code. This does NOT affect users of the Fedora releases (F38, F39 are thus not affected), but all users who use already F40 pre-release versions/variants or rawhide shall read this: Article: CVE details: https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-3094 Be aware that this is CVE criticality 10: this is the highest risk factor. Also be aware that the header of the RH arti...
According to this post, the person involved exposed a different name at one point.
https://boehs.org/node/everything-i-know-about-the-xz-backdoor
Cheong is not a Pingyin name. It uses Romanization instead. Assuming that this isn’t a false trail (unlikely, why would you expose a fake name once instead of using it all the time?) that cuts out China (Mainland) and Singapore which use the Pingyin system. Or somebody has a time machine and grabbed this guy before 1956.
Likely sources of the name would be a country/Chinese administrative zone that uses Chinese and Romanization. Which gives us Taiwan, Macau, or Hong Kong, all of which are in GMT+8. Note that two of these are technically under PRC control.
Realistically I feel this is just a rogue attacker instead of a nation state. The probability of China 1. Hiring someone from these specific regions 2. Exposing a non-pinying full name once on purpose is extremely low. Why bother with this when you have plenty of graduates from Tsinghua in Beijing? Especially after so many people desperate for jobs after COVID.