January 2022 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Fwd: [NZLUG] Fwd: [Linux-aus] Australia (and hopefully NZ) LUG meetings
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jan '22

26 Jan '22

Apologies for cross-posting, but this may be of interest to some of you. Cheers, Peter -------- Original Message -------- From: Mark Foster <blakjak(a)blakjak.net> Sent: January 26, 2022 9:12:30 PM GMT+13:00 To: NZ Linux Users Group <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz>, russell(a)coker.com.au Subject: [NZLUG] Fwd: [Linux-aus] Australia (and hopefully NZ) LUG meetings There may be some interest in this initiative from the (now largely defunct, it seems) NZLUG mailing list.... Thanks to Russell for offering up this initiative and trying to make it accessible to New Zealanders as well as Australians. I myself am unlikely to be available but am forwarding this to NZLUG in case there's interest here. Cheers Mark (sometime NZLUG admin; there's still a mailing list with some people subscribed to it... so who knows? :)) -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [Linux-aus] Australia (and hopefully NZ) LUG meetings Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2022 17:45:44 +1100 From: Russell Coker via linux-aus <linux-aus(a)lists.linux.org.au> Reply-To: russell(a)coker.com.au To: linux-aus(a)lists.linux.org.au https://etbe.coker.com.au/2022/01/26/australia-nz-linux-meetings/ I'm starting a new group for online meetings with the aim of giving benefits you can't get from watching YouTube etc. Details of how to connect etc will be available shortly. -- My Main Bloghttp://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Bloghttp://doc.coker.com.au/ _______________________________________________ linux-aus mailing list linux-aus(a)lists.linux.org.au http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to linux-aus-unsubscribe(a)lists.linux.org.au -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/.

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Who's Paying to Fix Open Source Software?
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jan '22

26 Jan '22

'The Log4Shell exploit "exposes how a vulnerability in a seemingly simple bit of infrastructure code can threaten the security of banks, tech companies, governments, and pretty much any other kind of organization," writes VentureBeat. But the incident also raises some questions: Should large deep-pocketed companies besides Google, which always seems to be heavily involved in such matters, be doing more to support the cause with people and resources? Long-time Slashdot reader frank_adrian314159 shares a related article from a programming author on Dev.To, who'd read hot takes like "Open source needs to grow the hell up." and "Open source' is broken". [T]he log4j developers had this massive security issue dumped in their laps, with the expectation that they were supposed to fix it. How did that happen? How did a group of smart, hard-working people get roped into a thankless, high-pressure situation with absolutely no upside for themselves...? It is this communal mythology I want to talk about, this great open source brainwashing that makes maintainers feel like they need to go above and beyond publishing source code under an open source license — that they need to manage and grow a community, accept contributions, fix issues, follow vulnerability disclosure best practices, and many other things... In reality what is happening, is that open source maintainers are effectively unpaid outsourcing teams for giant corporations. The log4j exploit was first reported by an engineer at Alibaba — a corporation with a market capitalization of $348 billion — so the article wonders what would happen if log4j's team had sent back a bill for the time they'd spend fixing the bug. Some additional opinions (via the "This Week in Programming" column): * PuTTY maintainer Andrew Ducker: "The internet (and many large companies) are dependent on software maintained by people in their spare time, for free. This may not be sustainable." * Filippo Valsorda, a Go team member at Google: "The role of Open Source maintainer has failed to mature from a hobby into a proper profession... The status quo is unsustainable.... GitHub Sponsors and Patreon are a nice way to show gratitude, but they are an extremely unserious compensation structure." Valsorda hopes to eventually see "a whole career path with an onramp for junior maintainers, including training, like a real profession."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/12/18/2016216 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/

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Big Surprise Of The Week: Oracle’s Audit Process Is In Cahoots With Sales
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jan '22

26 Jan '22

As part of the licensing terms for certain (most?) Oracle products, you have to agree to be audited by the company, to ensure your usage does not exceed the licences you have bought. Such audits are notorious for regularly telling customers that what they thought was compliance with the licence was nothing of the sort, and that they had better hand over more money to make the problem go away. Oracle’s official position has always been that there is some kind of separation between the operations of the audit department and the sales department, so the auditing process was entirely impartial and under no pressure to increase company revenues. Now some ex-Oracle execs are publicly admitting this is a load of nonsense <https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/25/oracle_audits/>. I don’t think Oracle is unique in this. Lots of big software companies (including Microsoft, I believe) offer similar site-licensing of their products, with similar audit requirements. And likely similar outcomes when an audit actually takes place.

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SystemRescueCD is now just SystemRescue
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Jan '22

25 Jan '22

Since (almost) nobody uses CDs any more, the handy bootable system-fixer Linux distro has dropped the “CD” from its name <https://www.system-rescue.org/>. The latest version, 9.00, is reviewed here <https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/24/systemrescue/>. Not sure what the benefit of the new in-kernel NTFS driver is, since the existing FUSE support works fine, and benchmarks I have seen seem to indicate that one is not unambiguously faster than the other. Seems SystemRescue is very popular with Windows users: “Windows gets its underwear in a twist relatively easily, and it's not generous with tools to fix it.” The writer also says “We would have quite liked to see some tools to help with a dead Linux box, too, though.” But the main (software) issue I get with Linux installations not booting is some screwup in the bootloader, and you can use the Linux installation itself to fix that, by chrooting into it from your SystemRescue boot.

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New MoonBounce UEFI Bootkit Can't Be Removed by Replacing the Hard Drive
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jan '22

25 Jan '22

'Security researchers from Kaspersky said they have discovered a novel bootkit that can infect a computer's UEFI firmware. From a report: What makes MoonBounce -- the name they gave the bootkit -- special is the fact that the malware doesn't burrow and hide inside a section of the hard drive named ESP (EFI System Partition), where some UEFI code typically resides, but instead it infects the SPI flaws memory that is found on the motherboard. This means that, unlike similar bootkits, defenders can't reinstall the operating system and replace the hard drive, as the bootkit will continue to remain on the infected device until the SPI memory is re-flashed (a very complex process) or the motherboard is replaced. According to Kaspersky, MoonBounce marks the third UEFI bootkit they have seen so far that can infect and live inside the SPI memory, following previous cases such as LoJax and MosaicRegressor. Furthermore, MoonBounce's discovery also comes after researchers have also found additional UEFI bootkits in recent months, such as ESPectre, FinSpy's UEFI bootkit, and others, which has led the Kaspersky team to conclude that what was once considered unachievable following the rollout of the UEFI standard has gradually become the norm.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/01/24/1815234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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AGM next week
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '22

24 Jan '22

Hi everyone We have our AGM coming up on Monday next week, with the following agenda: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Election of 2022 Committee - General business - Consumption of pizza (if applicable) However, I'm not sure whether we have a meeting room, as I'm still waiting on the confirmation whether we get our room sponsored or not for the year (head of CMS was on holiday till today). And if we should get it sponsored, then I need to sort out the room booking (which will take time, too). Worst case scenario: it will be an online only one via BigBlueButton. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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KDE-Powering Qt's New Framework Lets Developers Bring Ads Into Their Apps
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '22

24 Jan '22

'"Qt, the framework that powers the KDE desktop, is announcing support for ads in client-side applications," reports Neowin: This means that application developers will now be able to serve ads in traditional desktop applications.... Windows users have been dealing with this in Metro UI apps since Windows 8 and it's something that's never gone over well on the desktop. While it's doubtful you'll see ads in KDE's core applications, it would be possible for distributions that wish to further monetize their work to fork these applications, placing ads in them.... According to the documentation, the advertising plugin supports a variety of platforms. They are as follows: - Windows 10 - Ubuntu 20.04 - Raspbian Buster - macOS - Android 7.0 — iOS "Our offering aims to disrupt the IoT industry," explains Qt's press release, "enabling new business models and business cases that before were not possible." Reactions have been mixed. Comments on Phoronix ranged from calling it "a great way for boost development on KDE" to "Not sure if I like this."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/01/22/1751259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Supply chain attack used legitimate WordPress add-ons to backdoor sites
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '22

24 Jan '22

'Dozens of legitimate WordPress add-ons downloaded from their original sources have been found backdoored through a supply chain attack, researchers said. The backdoor has been found on “quite a few” sites running the open source content management system. The backdoor gave the attackers full administrative control of websites that used at least 93 WordPress plugins and themes downloaded from AccessPress Themes. The backdoor was discovered by security researchers from JetPack, the maker of security software owned by Automatic, provider of the WordPress.com hosting service and a major contributor to the development of WordPress. In all, Jetpack found that 40 AccessPress themes and 53 plugins were affected.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/01/supply-chain-attack-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Blender 3.0 Released With More New Features and Improvements
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '22

24 Jan '22

'The Free Open Source 3D production software Blender has been released in version 3.0 (official showreel) with more new features, improvements and performance optimizations as well as further improved workflows. In recent years Blender has received an increasing rate of attention from the 3D industry, with various larger businesses such as Epic, Microsoft, Apple and most recently Intel joining the blender foundation and donating to its development fund. Blender has seen an increasing rise in usage in various industries, such as animated feature film production, architecture and game development.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/01/23/0026257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New FSF Procedures Let Its 5,000 'Associate Members' Nominate New Board Members
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '22

24 Jan '22

'This week the Free Software Foundation's board announced that for the first time in the organization's 37-year-history, its 5,000-plus associate members will now be able to nominate and evaluate candidates for its board of directors. Under new procedures adopted by the FSF board on January 17 and summarized here, the organization will proactively engage associate members with a sufficient history of association with the FSF in the recruiting process by inviting them to suggest board nominees and then research collectively those nominees' suitability for a position on the board, including most importantly their record of commitment to free software ideals.... Following the new procedures, voting members (which include all current directors and are listed here) can start a process to recruit new directors, or a modified process to reconsider existing directors... The FSF intends to first add several new directors in 2022, utilizing these new procedures, and then begin a review of existing directors. The FSF staff and board have made this expanded engagement process a high priority and are working together to put in place the necessary infrastructure to support it, with a target to activate it within the first quarter of 2022... Voting members will review the community's nominations. A nominee may be removed from consideration if at least two voting members vote to do so without opposition from other voting members. The voting members will discuss the candidates and decide which should move forward in the process next. The FSF's associate members will then review each nominee's application, then evaluate and comment on those nominees in a private, staff-moderated discussion forum. Voting members will review this input and privately interview the finalists to assess their candidacy, ideals, and commitment to free software, then vote on their appointment.... The process is designed such that new iterations for both recruiting new directors and reviewing existing directors can be run whenever the need arises in the future. "Opening the director recruitment process to our associate members is a historic and welcome milestone for the FSF," said FSF president Geoffrey Knauth. "We are pleased to engage the free software community in attracting new talent to our leadership who will keep the freedoms.... We have worked hard to strengthen governance standards at the FSF and to create a transparent leadership recruitment process. We look forward to tackling new challenges and opportunities this year." The FSF's announcement calls the new "community engagement process" a "key result of a six-month consultant-led review designed to help make FSF governance and recruitment practices more transparent and participatory, while more systematically ensuring their commitment to the FSF's values and principles."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/01/22/050207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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