--- title: Half a Second | daily.dev description: A narrative nonfiction book about the 2024 XZ Utils backdoor incident, discovered when a Microsoft engineer noticed SSH logins taking half a second longer than... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/half-a-second-gylqxzjye twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Half a Second | daily.dev og:description: A narrative nonfiction book about the 2024 XZ Utils backdoor incident, discovered when a Microsoft engineer noticed SSH logins taking half a second longer than... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/half-a-second-gylqxzjye og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GyLQXZJyE.png og:image:alt: Half a Second og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Half a Second **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A narrative nonfiction book about the 2024 XZ Utils backdoor incident, discovered when a Microsoft engineer noticed SSH logins taking half a second longer than expected. The book covers three threads: the burned-out solo maintainer who was manipulated into handing over control, the engineer whose curiosity uncovered the attack, and the still-unidentified attacker who spent two years planting the backdoor. Beyond the incident itself, the book examines the structural vulnerability of open-source infrastructure — where large, visible projects receive funding while small but critical utilities are left to unpaid, overstretched volunteers. Available free online, as PDF, and as EPUB under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The people holding up the internet](https://daily.dev/posts/the-people-holding-up-the-internet-nnwoz3nvr) · Lobsters · 8 upvotes · 0 comments - [Inside the breach that broke the internet: The untold story of Log4Shell](https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-breach-that-broke-the-internet-the-untold-story-of-log4shell-ix6k9dw9u) · GitHub Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The XZ Utils aftermath: Inside the mission to stop the next global backdoor before it starts](https://daily.dev/posts/the-xz-utils-aftermath-inside-the-mission-to-stop-the-next-global-backdoor-before-it-starts-enx54itv6) · The New Stack · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/half-a-second-gylqxzjye) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Half a Second","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/half-a-second-gylqxzjye","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/half-a-second-gylqxzjye"},"datePublished":"2026-07-19T12:02:28.648Z","dateModified":"2026-07-19T12:03:17.806Z","description":"A narrative nonfiction book about the 2024 XZ Utils backdoor incident, discovered when a Microsoft engineer noticed SSH logins taking half a second longer than...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CxzD6vbw--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2005","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CxzD6vbw--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2005","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/half-a-second-gylqxzjye","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,cyber,open-source,linux","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Half a Second"}]} ```