Bastards!!!!  Absolute dirty rotten bastards..  I have a copy of Mint that I was planning to install in the next day or so, and now I'm not so sure, given the time-frame of this hack.  I downloaded the Cinamon edition yesterday (21st here in Oz), so it may well have been compromised.  Anyway, 'tis better to err on the side of caution, so I'll delete it and get myself a safe copy.

Oh, and many thanks to yourself and Hankers.... I coulda been caught wiv me pants down, and believe me, it ain't a pretty sight.

What was it the Monkees sang? Oh yes..."I'm a Believer".

the updates from within mint (installed months ago) is safe, right?

Yes, I believe so, alaknebs. 

I dl'd the Cinnamon edition about two weeks prior to the 20th. Think maybe that one has been compromised?

From the Linux Mint article

Does this affect you?

As far as we know, the only compromised edition was Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition.

If you downloaded another release or another edition, this does not affect you. If you downloaded via torrents or via a direct HTTP link, this doesn’t affect you either.

Finally, the situation happened today, so it should only impact people who downloaded this edition on February 20th.

How to check if your ISO is compromised?

If you still have the ISO file, check its MD5 signature with the command “md5sum yourfile.iso” (where yourfile.iso is the name of the ISO).

The valid signatures are below:

6e7f7e03500747c6c3bfece2c9c8394f  linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-32bit.iso
e71a2aad8b58605e906dbea444dc4983  linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso
30fef1aa1134c5f3778c77c4417f7238  linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-nocodecs-32bit.iso
3406350a87c201cdca0927b1bc7c2ccd  linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-nocodecs-64bit.iso
df38af96e99726bb0a1ef3e5cd47563d  linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-oem-64bit.iso

If you still have the burnt DVD or USB stick, boot a computer or a virtual machine offline (turn off your router if in doubt) with it and let it load the live session.

Once in the live session, if there is a file in /var/lib/man.cy, then this is an infected ISO.

Thanks Hankers. Pasted into notepad and saved it. Haven't burnt it yet, waiting to get a new USB drive.

Thanks, Hank. Was off gathering wool. For Jim.

That's the version I downloaded from the Mint home Site.... on the 21st, being Oz.is in an earlier time zone.

Not to worry, though, I deleted it, to be shure to be shure, and will get a fresh copy later today.... which ATM  is the 23rd here in the great land down unda.

Yup, I'm dead set serious about never downgrading to Win 10, so Il' be trialling the more popular Linux versions to ascertain which I feel best suits my needs as a Windows 10 alternative.

Thus far Ubuntu and Mint are the frontrunners, with Robolinux coming avery close 3rd.... 2nd if I count the aforementioned as running toward the finishing post neck and neck.