Reflections on Trusting Trust by Ken Thompson
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 8 of 60 articles by recommenders
People recommend it as essential reading on why binary blobs and hidden compiler backdoors are a real problem, and why auditing all source is unfeasible.
People recommend it as essential reading on why binary blobs and hidden compiler backdoors are a real problem, and why auditing all source is unfeasible.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Recommended reading for anyone in technology
“More people should read that Ken Thompson piece about backdooring the original C compiler”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “A Theory of Why Prompt Injection Works” “I highly recommend you read it if this is something that interests you.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “OpenTitan Shipping in Production” “The Thompson paper is a great reference, thanks.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Notepad++ supply chain attack breakdown” - Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Copilot edited an ad into my PR”
Explains compiler backdoor and binary risk
“Read Reflections on Trusting Trust to understand why having little bits of binary blobs sprinkled all over your compute arch is actually a major problem.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Pebble Watch software is now open source” “More people should read that Ken Thompson piece about backdooring the original C compiler”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “A Theory of Why Prompt Injection Works”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Reflections on Trusting Trust by Ken ThompsonThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
7 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“More people should read that Ken Thompson piece about backdooring the original C compiler”
“Everyone in technology should read this.”
“I highly recommend you read it if this is something that interests you.”
“The Thompson paper is a great reference, thanks.”
“I think this is one of the stronger points as it shows you it is unfeasible to require everybody to audit all source code before running it.”
“Read Reflections on Trusting Trust to understand why having little bits of binary blobs sprinkled all over your compute arch is actually a major problem.”
“Could be a good starting point.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.