December 2021 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

This USB 'Kill Cord' Can Instantly Wipe Your Laptop if Snatched or Stolen
by Peter Reutemann 18 Dec '21

18 Dec '21

'Journalists, activists, and human rights defenders face a constant battle to keep files safe from a growing set of digital threats and surveillance. But physical attacks can be challenging to defend against, whether an opportunist snatch-and-grab thief or an oppressive government kicking down someone's door. This week, a project called BusKill launched a custom USB magnetic breakaway cable that acts as a "dead man's switch," locking a computer if someone physically snatches it and severs the magnetic connectors. BusKill has been in the works for more than two years as a do-it-yourself project. Anyone with the hardware could compile the source code, but it only worked on Linux and components quickly sold out. After a crowdsourcing effort, the cable is now available to buy starting at $59 and has an accompanying app that works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, allowing the person using the cable to easily arm and disarm the cable with a touch of a button.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/12/17/1530254 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Pop!_OS 21.10 Review
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

This review <https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/16/pop_os_2110_new_system76/> of the new version of the Ubuntu variant from System76 mentions a lot of trouble getting it to play nicely with other installed OSes on the same machine. One key difference is that it doesn’t boot with GRUB. Instead, it is EFI-only, and requires your kernel and initial RAM disk to live inside the “EFI System Partition” (ESP), where they can be found by systemd-boot. This typically requires the ESP to be enlarged beyond its initial size. And, depending on the tools you use, that can be problematic. This EFI-only boot procedure can also complicate coexistence with other OS installations on a multiboot system. But, interestingly, not Microsoft Windows, at least according to one of the reader comments. Indeed, a well-known issue where installing Windows on an MBR-based system destroys your ability to boot other OSes goes away with EFI-only booting. Seems Windows is well-enough behaved to only replace its own EFI state, leaving that for other OSes alone.

1 0

AGM next month
by Peter Reutemann 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

Hi everyone We have our Annual General Meeting (AGM) coming up on January 24th with the following (preliminary) agenda: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Election of 2022 Committee - General business - Consumption of pizza Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/282720630/ BTW Meeting venue (or whether to be held online due to COVID) will be confirmed closer to the date. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Google Is Building a New AR Device and OS
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '21

15 Dec '21

'According to job listings on LinkedIn, Google appears to be working on an augmented reality device and operating system to pair with it. Ars Technica reports: On LinkedIn, operating system engineering director Mark Lucovsky announced that he has joined Google. He previously headed up mixed reality operating system work for Meta, and before that he was one of the key architects of Windows NT at Microsoft. "My role is to lead the Operating System team for Augmented Reality at Google," he wrote. He also posted a link to some job listings at Google that give the impression Google is getting just as serious about AR as Apple or Meta. As 9to5Google discovered, one of the listings ("Senior Software Developer, Embedded, Augmented Reality OS") described Google's objective in clear terms: "Our team is building the software components that control and manage the hardware on our Augmented Reality (AR) products. These are the software components that run on the AR devices and are the closest to the hardware. As Google adds products to the AR portfolio, the OS Foundations team is the very first software team to work with new hardware." Other job listings say new hires will be working on an "innovative AR device." And one specifies that Google is "focused on making immersive computing accessible to billions of people through mobile devices." The roles are largely in the United States, but some are located in Waterloo, Ontario -- the HQ of Canadian smart glasses maker North, which Google acquired in 2020.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/12/14/2233208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Android 12 Go Edition Brings New Speed, Battery, Privacy Features To Lower-end Phones
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '21

15 Dec '21

'Google's Pixel 6 line may have served as Android 12's big debut for higher-end phones, but Android 12 (Go edition) plans to bring many of the enhancements and features of Android 12 to lower-end phones, too. Google on Tuesday unveiled a host of new features for the Go edition that are set to roll out to devices in 2022. From a report: Google says that in addition to speed enhancements that'll help apps launch up to 30% faster, Android 12 (Go edition) will include a feature that'll save battery life and storage by automatically "hibernating apps that haven't been used for extended periods of time." And with the Files Go app, you'll be able to recover files within 30 days of deletion. Android 12 (Go edition) will also help you easily translate any content, listen to the news and share apps with nearby devices offline to save data, Google says. The company said Android Go has amassed 200 million users.' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/21/12/14/1848213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Log4Shell Vuln Rated 10 Out Of 10
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Dec '21

14 Dec '21

The Log4Shell vulnerability has been given the highest possible CVE severity rating <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/12/the-log4shell-zeroda…>. It’s a really, really stupid bug in a logging framework called Log4J, which is used by an incredible variety of Java-based applications, including Minecraft. Log messages are generated according to customizable format templates that the admin can specify. These templates allow the creation of a range of different messages, including all kinds of useful information which can aid in debugging, performance monitoring, usage statistics gathering etc. But one thing you should never, ever do is, having substituted some text from some random source (e.g. user input), go back and scan that text for format substitution codes. But that is what the buggy code does.

1 1

VPOTUS Getting Flak For Her Bluetooth Aversion
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Dec '21

14 Dec '21

Seems US Vice President Kamala Harris is copping a fair amount of ridicule after saying she prefers wired headphones to wireless Bluetooth ones, for security reasons <https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/13/in_brief_security/>. She’s just listening to her security advisors, folks. And their advice makes sense.

1 0

n-dimensional image tool powers up Python
by Matthew Skiffington 08 Dec '21

08 Dec '21

>From the nature science briefing: A free, open-source and extensible image viewer for arbitrarily complex (‘ <https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d…> *n* <https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d…>-dimensional’) data <https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d…> fills a gap in the Python scientific ecosystem. napari — whose name refers to a Pacific island village midway between the developers’ bases in San Francisco and Melbourne — features a simple graphical interface with a built-in Python console. Early adopters are using it to streamline everything from visualizing atmospheric jet streams to identifying cells in tissue. Nature | 4 min read <https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d…> Cheers,Matthew *Doctoral Researcher, TAIAO project <https://taiao.ai/>**, University of Waikato* *Machine Learning Laboratory, FG.2.01LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-skiffington>*

1 0

A Mysterious Threat Actor is Running Hundreds of Malicious Tor Relays
by Peter Reutemann 07 Dec '21

07 Dec '21

'Since at least 2017, a mysterious threat actor has run thousands of malicious servers in entry, middle, and exit positions of the Tor network in what a security researcher has described as an attempt to deanonymize Tor users. The Record: Tracked as KAX17, the threat actor ran at its peak more than 900 malicious servers part of the Tor network, which typically tends to hover around a daily total of up to 9,000-10,000. Some of these servers work as entry points (guards), others as middle relays, and others as exit points from the Tor network. Their role is to encrypt and anonymize user traffic as it enters and leaves the Tor network, creating a giant mesh of proxy servers that bounce connections between each other and provide the much-needed privacy that Tor users come for. Servers added to the Tor network typically must have contact information included in their setup, such as an email address, so Tor network administrators and law enforcement can contact server operators in the case of a misconfiguration or file an abuse report. However, despite this rule, servers with no contact information are often added to the Tor network, which is not strictly policed, mainly to ensure there's always a sufficiently large number of nodes to bounce and hide user traffic.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/12/06/1941209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

FSF's Anti-DRM Campaign Plans Bad-Review Protest Against Disney+
by Peter Reutemann 07 Dec '21

07 Dec '21

'For their fifteenth International Day Against DRM this Friday, the Free Software Foundation's "Defective by Design" campaign is "calling on you to help us send a message to purveyors of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)". And this year they're targeting Disney+ The ongoing pandemic has only tightened the stranglehold streaming services have as some of the most dominant forms of entertainment media, and Disney+ is among the worst of them. After years of aggressive lobbying to extend the length of copyright, based on their perceived need to keep a certain rat from entering the public domain, they've now set their sights on "protecting" their various franchises in a different way: by shackling them with digital restrictions. If Disney's stated mission is to keep "inspiring hope and sparking the curiosity of all ages", using DRM to limit that curiosity remains the wrong move. This year, we'll be using one of Disney's own means of spreading their "service" and the DRM bundled with it: their mobile app. If you're an existing user of the Google Play (Android) or Apple App Stores, you can support the International Day Against DRM by voicing your objection to Disney's subjugation of their users. Streaming services like Netflix and Peacock have the same issues, but by targeting a newer one with such massive investment and capital behind it, we can make sure that we're heard. Disney+ is new: that gives it time to change. Disney+ is placed near the top of the most frequently downloaded apps on both the Google Play and Apple App Stores. We invite you to write a well-thought objection to Disney's use of DRM, with a fitting review. It is the perfect way to let the corporation, and other users intending to use its services know Disney's grievous mistake in using DRM to restrict customers who already want to view their many films and television shows. It will give you a chance to give them the exact rating that any service that treats its users so poorly: a single star. DRM isn't the only problem with the Disney+ app. It's also nonfree software. If you're not already an Android or iOS user, we don't recommend starting an account just to participate in this action. You can also choose to send an email to Disney executives following our template. They're urging supporters to also share the actions they've taken on social media using the tag #DayAgainstDRM. (And there's also an IRC channel "to discuss and share strategies for anti-DRM activism," with more anti-DRM actions still to come. "While some aspects of the struggle have changed, the core principles remain the same: users should not be forced to surrender their digital autonomy in exchange for media."' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/21/12/04/187207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0