Published on: 2014-06-14T06:23:20+00:00
In an email exchange on June 14, 2014, a user named Un Ix suggested offering a prize for anyone who could find malicious strings within the next hour. Wladimir cautioned against focusing on such a task and instead suggested looking out for icebergs over wrongly arranged deck chairs. The conversation does not provide any further context or information.In a conversation dated June 14, 2014, Un Ix joked about the translation process in Bitcoin's development. Wladimir responded that there is post-processing done on the script to remove stray control characters, but there is no check for number and presence of formatting characters. Wladimir usually checks this manually by looking through diffs, but he mentioned that it would be great if someone added that feature.The discussion is about the testing of the translation process in software development. The conversation started with a joke about offering prizes for spotting malicious strings within an hour. However, Matt Whitlock explains that it is more of an issue of accidental breakage than any maliciousness. A single character in the wrong place in a language bundle can cause runtime failure leading to issues like scrapping the whole release which could prompt users to question the quality control process of the dev team. Failure is defined as extra text that pushes a UI element down, making the button the user needs to click no longer visible. This kind of failure cannot be tested except by having a human being run through some example workflows, which presumably happens during the release process.During a conversation between Matt Whitlock and Un Ix, Un Ix joked about offering a prize for anyone who could spot any "malicious" strings within the next hour. However, Whitlock noted that the translation process is more concerned with accidental breakage than maliciousness. He explained that one character in the wrong place in a language bundle can cause the application to fail at runtime, which may not be immediately apparent when running in unaffected locales. While this kind of problem may not result in data or money loss, it could prompt users to question the dev team's quality control process and require them to scrap the whole release.In June 2014, a developer named Un Ix raised a question regarding malicious strings in a programming project. The concern was more about accidental breakage than intentional harm. A single character placed incorrectly in a language bundle could cause runtime failure, potentially leading to a scrapped release and damage to the dev team's reputation. Although not likely to result in data or monetary loss, it remains a significant issue for quality control.On the Bitcoin-development mailing list, there was a discussion regarding translation updates. Jeff Garzik suggested that there should be a translation freeze point to prevent any malicious changes made at the last minute in a language where maintainers may not be familiar with all the strings. Wladimir responded by saying that translations follow a very different cycle than the rest of the code and that entering and reviewing them happens inside Transifex. He also mentioned that someone could maliciously change strings but it is a small risk. Despite this, he decided not to do the translation update if it would make everyone happy.In an email conversation between Jeff Garzik and Wladimir on June 13, 2014, a discussion was had about translation freeze points. The concern raised was that someone could maliciously change the strings at the last minute in a language maintainers don't know well. Wladimir stated that translations follow a different cycle than the rest of the code and are entered and reviewed through Transifex. He also mentioned that if it makes everyone happy, he won't do the translation update. The topic of discussion was considered as bikeshedding and attracted much attention.On June 13, 2014, a discussion took place among Bitcoin developers regarding the potential risks of last-minute changes to language imports. Developer Wladimir suggested that if he did not hear anything, he would proceed with a last-minute language import. However, another developer, xor, expressed concern about making any changes between release candidates and releases in high-risk projects like Bitcoin. Jeff Garzik, a Bitcoin core developer, agreed with the principle that such changes could cause severe havoc and suggested implementing translation freeze points to address this issue. The developers also discussed the possibility of someone maliciously changing strings at the last minute in a language maintainers don't know well, which could pose a small holistic risk to the project.In June 2014, a discussion occurred between two individuals, xor and Wladimir, regarding a potential last-minute language import for Bitcoin Core. Xor expressed concern over making changes to high-risk projects like Bitcoin, as any mistakes could cause severe issues. They suggested that there should be no changes between release candidates and releases. The discussion also brought up the idea of having a release cycle policy for Bitcoin Core.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T09:31:13.490945+00:00