[rectang]

This particular glitch was inserted via an attack on the BitKeeper repository. (EDIT: it was actually a CVS mirror of the repo.)

But for the normal contribution flow, code review isn't the only safeguard. There's also a deterrent in that should a backdoor be inserted via a contribution that went through the normal process, an audit trail exists. If the backdoor is later discovered, there would be reputation harm to the contributor.

Depending on how much an open source project knows about its contributors, it may be more or less difficult to track down a culprit, but in any case the audit trail makes such attacks more complicated.

[FartyMcFarter]

> This particular glitch was inserted via an attack on the BitKeeper repository.

No, it was inserted into the CVS mirror.