If it was compromised account trying to sneak code into the kernel,
the attacker wouldn’t rewrite history since that would be obviously
flagged when Linus tries to merge the pull request; as demonstrated by
Linus in fact noticing the rewritten history. There was virtually no
chance that this was an attack.
Linus’ tone was disproportionate, but he wasn’t wrong. This could easily have been a compromised account trying to sneak code into the kernel.
His tone is almost always disproportionate. It’s just who he is.
If it was compromised account trying to sneak code into the kernel, the attacker wouldn’t rewrite history since that would be obviously flagged when Linus tries to merge the pull request; as demonstrated by Linus in fact noticing the rewritten history. There was virtually no chance that this was an attack.