A vulnerability in the Python programming language that has been overlooked for 15 years is now back in the spotlight as it likely affects more than 350,000 open-source repositories and can lead to code execution. Disclosed in 2007 and tagged as CVE-2007-4559, the security issue never received a patch, the only mitigation provided being a documentation update warning developers about the risk.

Pangu Lab has identified what it claims is a sophisticated backdoor that was used by the NSA to subvert highly targeted Linux systems around the world for more than a decade.