[outside1234]

Until there is a post-mortem, we have to assume the simplest explanation: gross facepalm, like leaving something 777 open to the world.

[gpvos]

Possible. But even then it would be good to know as much as possible on who actually broke in and what they did.

[fnordfnordfnord]

That's the pre-911 world you're living in, no seriously, a derp is the best case, careful people plan for scenarios other than the best-case failure.

I have enough respect for the kernel maintainers to assume that they would be able to muster the courage to confess to derping up their file permissions in a time span less than two years.