Samsung Accidentally Leaked The exFAT Linux Driver

Last month there was news of a native Linux driver for Microsoft's exFAT file-system. It turns out that the driver wasn't developed through any clean-room reverse-engineering but was rather the apparent rebadging of a Samsung exFAT driver for Linux.

After being informed via email by a user today with this open-source Linux exFAT driver appearing on GPL-Violations.org, the exFAT Linux driver comes with nefarious intentions.

It appears (and evidently its "developer" is admitting it) that the exFAT Linux kernel module was based upon source-code found from a Samsung developer for their exFAT driver. The code likely leaked out of Samsung accidentally by a developer pushing their Linux kernel source tree externally to GitHub when it should have been made private.

The nefarious developer that stumbled upon the source-code then (illegally) changed the license on the code to say it was under the GNU GPL and to imply the code in the GitHub repository was his work. The developer then alleges, "All I did was updating the code to work with the recent kernels and promoting the leak. People with emotional insecurities are trying to make up something depressing and horrible, point a finger and make lots of noise. For me it was just sad to see people complaining more often than being grateful or happy about something."

Samsung hasn't yet commented on the matter, but if you were hoping for this Microsoft exFAT Linux support to take out (without the use of FUSE), you're likely to be disappointed.