#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet

Where this was said

VLC backdoors

At 3:57:33 · chapter starts 3:54:27

Two intelligence agencies requested VLC backdoors and were refused; air-gapped build machines; double-signature verification; detected state-actor fake binary injection; the sandboxing architecture challenge. ^{[1] — Kieran Kunhya "For decades, video codec engineers optimized for PSNR — a purely mathematical metric that made video look blurry. Hobbyist anime fans ignor…" 2:56:04 Play}

Technology

Two Intelligence Agencies Asked for VLC Backdoors

#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on th… · May 6, 2026 Technology

At least two intelligence agencies approached VideoLAN requesting backdoors in VLC. The answer was an unambiguous no. VLC compiles on air-gapped machines, starting from scratch with the compiler itself, uses double-signature verification, and has caught what appears to be a state actor attempting to inject fake binaries into their servers.

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If we had to compromise our software, we would shut it down. This is clear.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf

#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technolog…

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