April 2023 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Weta Digital’s Technology Division Sold To US Firm
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Aug '25

01 Aug '25

Let me see if I understand this article <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/sir-peter-jackson-to-sell-weta-digital-…> correctly: the part of Weta Digital that used to develop the in-house 3D graphics/effects tools that they use in all those movies is being sold to US-based Unity Software. The part that is left will be called “WetaFX”, and will become a customer of Unity for the use of those tools, no longer doing its own development in-house. By the way, I’ve been looking at the Unity site <https://unity.com/>, and it looks like all their products are rentware (subscription-based).

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List Of IPTV Resources
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Sep '24

22 Sep '24

This user <https://github.com/iptv-org> just popped up in my GitHub feed. One repo <https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv> claims to be a list of links to over 8000 streaming TV channels from nations all over the world, while the other is a list of tools*, providers and other resources. Do be aware it’s a bit of a mixed bag: yes, there are legitimate channels (no encryption so far that I have noticed), but also some dubious-looking links. *Oddly, FFmpeg and youtube-dl aren’t in the list.

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Enabling Case-Insensitive Filenames On Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Feb '24

06 Feb '24

The ext4 filesystem has had the “casefold” option for a while now <https://lwn.net/Articles/784041/>. This allows you to specify, when you initialize a new filesystem, that you want file/directory names to be treated as case-insensitive. At the same time, you have to specify that the filenames are to be interpreted as UTF-8 encoding; normally the kernel doesn’t care, it only singles out ASCII slash and NUL bytes for special interpretation, and simply passes through any other byte values in the names. I was able to create such a filesystem, but I wasn’t able to mount it in my last-upgraded-just-a-few-days-ago Debian Unstable setup. When I try, it fails, and in the dmesg log I see Filesystem with casefold feature cannot be mounted without CONFIG_UNICODE Turns out the Debian 5.10 kernel has not been built with this CONFIG_UNICODE option enabled. However, this situation looks set to change shortly, according to <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=985689>.

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Unkillable UEFI Malware Bypassing Secure Boot Enabled By Unpatchable Windows Flaw
by Peter Reutemann 12 May '23

12 May '23

'Researchers have announced a major cybersecurity find -- the world's first-known instance of real-world malware that can hijack a computer's boot process even when Secure Boot and other advanced protections are enabled and running on fully updated versions of Windows. From a report: Dubbed BlackLotus, the malware is what's known as a UEFI bootkit. These sophisticated pieces of malware hijack the UEFI -- short for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface -- the low-level and complex chain of firmware responsible for booting up virtually every modern computer. As the mechanism that bridges a PC's device firmware with its operating system, the UEFI is an OS in its own right. It's located in an SPI-connected flash storage chip soldered onto the computer motherboard, making it difficult to inspect or patch. Because the UEFI is the first thing to run when a computer is turned on, it influences the OS, security apps, and all other software that follows. These traits make the UEFI the perfect place to run malware. When successful, UEFI bootkits disable OS security mechanisms and ensure that a computer remains infected with stealthy malware that runs at the kernel mode or user mode, even after the operating system is reinstalled or a hard drive is replaced. As appealing as it is to threat actors to install nearly invisible and unremovable malware that has kernel-level access, there are a few formidable hurdles standing in their way. One is the requirement that they first hack the device and gain administrator system rights, either by exploiting one or more vulnerabilities in the OS or apps or by tricking a user into installing trojanized software. Only after this high bar is cleared can the threat actor attempt an installation of the bootkit. The second thing standing in the way of UEFI attacks is UEFI Secure Boot, an industry-wide standard that uses cryptographic signatures to ensure that each piece of software used during startup is trusted by a computer's manufacturer. Secure Boot is designed to create a chain of trust that will prevent attackers from replacing the intended bootup firmware with malicious firmware. If a single firmware link in that chain isn't recognized, Secure Boot will prevent the device from starting.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/03/06/1854200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Foundation Announces DentOS 3.0, an Open Source Network OS for Disaggregated Networks
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '23

01 May '23

'This month the Linux Foundation announced version 3.0 of DentOS, an open source network operating system using the Linux kernel, Switchdev, and other Linux-based projects for a standardized network operating system "without abstractions or overhead," according to the project's web page. "All underlying infrastructure — including ASIC and Silicon for networking and datapath — is treated equally; while existing abstractions, APIs, drivers, low-level overhead, and other open software are simplified. DENT unites silicon vendors, ODMs, SIs, OEMs, and end users across all verticals to enable the transition to disaggregated networks." Or, as the Linux Foundation, the operating system provides "a flexible and customizable platform for network administrators to manage their networks." DENT provides access to open source-based switches at a lower cost and with more flexibility compared to proprietary switches with locked ecosystems. Network wiring closets in many facilities--including retail stores, warehousing, remote locations, enterprises, and small and mid-sized businesses--are often small, requiring a compact solution for network management. Additionally, staff expertise may be limited, and branch-office switches from leading suppliers can require costly contracts. DENT can be easily deployed on white-box hardware in small spaces, providing an efficient and cost-effective solution for network management. As a result, DENT deployment can significantly enhance network management in a wide range of environments, providing greater efficiency, reliability, and scalability... DentOS enables Amazon's Just Walk Out Technology to connect and manage thousands of devices like cameras, sensors, entry and exit gates, and access points on the network edge. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/04/30/010222 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Not-So-Stupid(?) Linux Trick
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Apr '23

28 Apr '23

Here’s a command that can sometimes look a bit unnerving in operation, but is actually quite safe: rmdir -p «dir» where «dir» is some directory. Or to watch the whole process in action, add the option to give progress messages: rmdir -pv «dir» Background: the basic command rmdir «dir» deletes the named directory, but only if it is empty. The “-p” option takes this further, by then trying to delete the parent of «dir», and if that succeeds, the parent of that, and so on. It stops only when it gets to a nonempty directory, or when it has done all components of «dir». So if, for example, you try this on an absolute path, this will mean the command always stops on an error. And the error could quite likely be on a directory which contains important stuff that you care about. But, as I said, it’s quite safe, since it won’t delete that stuff. But I told you it could be unnerving, didn’t I?

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New Intel Linux Graphics Driver Patches Released, Up To 10-15% Better Performance
by Peter Reutemann 28 Apr '23

28 Apr '23

'A new set of patches have been released for the Intel Linux graphics driver that "can provide 10-15% better performance when operating in the tuned mode," reports Phoronix. From the report: The set of Intel i915 Linux kernel graphics driver patches are about exposing the Intel RPS (Requested Power State) up/down thresholds. Right now the Intel Linux kernel driver has static values set for the up/down thresholds between power states while these patches would make them dynamically configurable by user-space. Google engineer Syed Faaiz Hussain raised the issue that they experimented with the Intel RPS tuning and were able to manage up to 15% better performance. With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with OpenGL was a 14.5% boost, CS:GO with Vulkan was 12.9% faster, and Civilization VI with OpenGL was 11% faster while Strange Brigade was unchanged. No other game numbers were provided. But as this is about changing the threshold for how aggressively the Intel graphics hardware switches power states, the proposed patches leave it up to user-space to adjust the thresholds as they wish. Google engineers are interested in hooking this into Feral's GameMode so that the values could be automatically tuned when launching games and then returning to their former state when done gaming, in order to maximize battery life / power efficiency. The only downside with these current patches are that they work only for non-GuC based platforms... So the latest Alder/Raptor Lake notebooks as well as Intel DG2/Alchemist discrete graphics currently aren't able to make use of this tuning option. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/04/27/1927209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Kernel 6.3 Released
by Peter Reutemann 27 Apr '23

27 Apr '23

'A report from ZDNet, written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols: The latest Linux kernel is out with a slew of new features -- and, for once, this release has been nice and easy. [...] Speaking of Rust, everyone's favorite memory-safe language, the new kernel comes with user-mode Linux support for Rust code. Miguel Ojeda, the Linux kernel developer, who's led the efforts to bring Rust to Linux, said the additions mean we're, "getting closer to a point where the first Rust modules can be upstreamed." Other features in the Linux 6.3 kernel include support and enablement for upcoming and yet-to-be-released Intel and AMD CPUs and graphics hardware. While these updates will primarily benefit future hardware, several changes in this release directly impact today's users' day-to-day experience. The kernel now supports AMD's automatic Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation (IBRS) feature for Spectre mitigation, providing a less performance-intensive alternative to the retpoline speculative execution. Linux 6.3 also includes new power management drivers for ARM and RISC-V architectures. RISC-V has gained support for accelerated string functions via the Zbb bit manipulation extension, while ARM received support for scalable matrix extension 2 instructions. For filesystems, Linux 6.3 brings AES-SHA2-based encryption support for NFS, optimizations for EXT4 direct I/O performance, low-latency decompression for EROFS, and a faster Brtfs file-system driver. Bottom line: many file operations will be a bit more secure and faster. For gamers, the new kernel provides a native Steam Deck controller interface in HID. It also includes compatibility for the Logitech G923 Xbox edition racing wheel and improvements to the 8BitDo Pro 2 wired game controllers. Who says you can't game on Linux? Single-board computers, such as BannaPi R3, BPI-M2 Pro, and Orange Pi R1 Plus, also benefit from updated drivers in this release. There's also support for more Wi-Fi adapters and chipsets. These include: Realtek RTL8188EU Wi-Fi adapter support; Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 wireless chipset support; and Ethernet support for NVIDIA BlueField 3 DPU. For users dealing with complex networks that have both old-school and modern networks, the new kernel can also handle multi-path TCP handling mixed flows with IPv4 and IPv6.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/04/26/0023238 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Edge is Leaking the Sites You Visit To Bing
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '23

26 Apr '23

'Microsoft's Edge browser appears to be sending URLs you visit to its Bing API website. Reddit users first spotted the privacy issues with Edge last week, noticing that the latest version of Microsoft Edge sends a request to bingapis.com with the full URL of nearly every page you navigate to. Microsoft tells The Verge it's investigating the reports. From a report: "Searching for references to this URL give very few results, no documentation on this feature at all," said hackermchackface, the Reddit user who first discovered the issue. While Reddit users weren't able to uncover why Microsoft Edge is sending the URLs you visit to its Bing API site, we asked Rafael Rivera, a software engineer and one of the developers behind EarTrumpet, to investigate, and he discovered it's part of a poorly implemented new feature in Edge. "Microsoft Edge now has a creator follow feature that is enabled by default," says Rivera in a conversation with The Verge. "It appears the intent was to notify Bing when you're on certain pages, such as YouTube, The Verge, and Reddit. But it doesn't appear to be working correctly, instead sending nearly every domain you visit to Bing."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/23/04/25/209254 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Red Hat Begins Cutting 'Hundreds of Jobs'
by Peter Reutemann 25 Apr '23

25 Apr '23

'According to Phoronix citing multiple local North Carolina news outlets, Red Hat is cutting "hundreds of jobs" in an initial round of layoffs announced today. From the report: According to WRAL, Red Hat CEO Matt Hicks is said to have told employees in an email "we will not reduce roles directly selling to customers or building our products," which is hopefully good news for their many upstream Linux developers they employ that ultimately build Red Hat Enterprise Linux and associated software products. Red Hat will begin notifying affected employees today in some countries while the process will continue through the end of the quarter. IBM, which acquired Red Hat in 2019, has already slashed some five thousand positions so far in 2023.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/04/24/2220256 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Introduces “Windows Frontline”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

This <https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/24/windows_frontline_cloudpc_sustainabi…> sounds like a way for Microsoft to get more revenue from users buying fewer PCs. I wonder how long it will be before Intel and the major PC vendors put a stop to this kind of talk?

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Mango Pi RISC-V Single Board Computer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Here is an entertaining walkthrough from Christopher Barnatt on the ever-dependable “Explaining Computers” channel of a single-core RISC-V-based board with the same tiny dimensions as a Raspberry Pi Zero W <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g18PMjjlcc>. Hardly a speed demon, but for the price, I think it represents amazing value. Also a clear indication that RISC-V is fulfilling its promise of being a serious competitor, or even a successor, to ARM.

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QEMU 8.0 Released with More ARM and RISC-V Emulation
by Peter Reutemann 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

'There's a major new update of QEMU, the open-source machine emulator, reports 9to5Linux: Coming a year after QEMU 7.0, the QEMU 8.0 release is here to improve support for ARM and RISC-V architectures. - For ARM, it adds emulation support for FEAT_EVT, FEAT_FGT, and AArch32 ARMv8-R, CPU emulation for Cortex-A55 and Cortex-R52, support for a new Olimex STM32 H405 machine type, as well as gdbstub support for M-profile system registers. - For the RISC-V architecture, QEMU 8.0 brings updated machine support for OpenTitan, PolarFire, and OpenSBI, additional ISA and Extension support for smstateen, native debug icount trigger, cache-related PMU events in virtual mode, Zawrs/Svadu/T-Head/Zicond extensions, and ACPI support. Moreover, RISC-V received multiple fixes covering PMP propagation for TLB, mret exceptions, uncompressed instructions, and other emulation/virtualization improvements. Improvements were also made for the s390x (IBM Z) platform, the HP Precision Architecture (HPPA) platform, and x86.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/23/04/23/0525206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Intel's I219-LM Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Ran at 60% Maximum Speed on Linux Since 2020
by Peter Reutemann 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

'Phoronix reports: If you rely on an Intel I219-LM Gigabit Ethernet adapter, you will want to look forward to upgrading your Linux kernel build soon... A fix was committed Thursday after Intel engineers discovered this particular Ethernet chipset had only been running at around 60% of its maximum speed due to a regression introduced back in 2020... Since the release of Linux 5.8 in mid-2020, this Ethernet adapter had been running at around 60% of its advertised potential due to an e1000e driver regression.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/23/04/22/0554251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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KaOS Linux Celebrates 10 Years with New ISO Release Featuring Pre-Release KDE Plasma 6
by Peter Reutemann 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

'9to5Linux reports: KDE-focused and Arch Linux-inspired independent distribution KaOS Linux celebrates today 10 years of existence with a new stable ISO release that brings some of the latest GNU/Linux technologies and a preview of the upcoming KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment. Yes, you're reading it right, KaOS is one of the very first GNU/Linux distributions to offer you a live ISO image with a pre-release version of the KDE Plasma 6 desktop, which, of course, is compiled against the latest Qt 6 open-source application framework... Since this is a special ISO release, the devs also added an option to play music during the installation process. "KaOS uses the Systemd-provided Systemd-boot for UEFI installs," according to the release notes.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/04/23/0555224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Proton Launches an End-to-End Encrypted Password Manager
by Peter Reutemann 21 Apr '23

21 Apr '23

'Proton, the company behind Proton Mail, has announced the launch of a new password manager: Proton Pass. While the service will eventually become free for everyone to use, it's currently only available as a beta to Proton's Lifetime and Visionary users for now. From a report: As is the case with Proton's other products, Proton Pass uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) that's supposed to keep your personal information away from prying eyes, including third parties and Proton itself. In addition to letting you store your usernames, passwords, and notes, you can also add any randomly generated email aliases that you can use as a replacement for your real address. Proton's new password manager not only applies E2EE to your passwords but also the usernames, web addresses, and all the other fields associated with your login information. In a blog post explaining the service's security model, Proton notes that "all cryptographic operations, including key generation and data encryption," happen locally on your device, which Protons says it can't decrypt, even if a third party requests it.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/23/04/20/1840225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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MariaDB Hits Financial Headwinds
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Apr '23

20 Apr '23

This report <https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/mariadb_job_losses/> says that the company set up to commercialize MariaDB (the fork of MySQL created by Michael “Monty” Widenius after the latter’s acquisition by Oracle) is cutting jobs and adopting other cost-saving measures to get around revenue shortfalls. What interested me was, in response to a reader asking what Widenius was doing after personally getting $15 million out of that acquisition, the founder himself responded <https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2023/04/18/mariadb_job_losses/#c_4…> about the contributions that he had put into the company, the project and employees’s salaries.

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FSF Says Google's Decision to Deprecate JPEG-XL Emphasizes Need for Browser Choice
by Peter Reutemann 17 Apr '23

17 Apr '23

'"The fact remains that Google Chrome is the arbiter of web standards," argues FSF campaigns manager Greg Farough (while adding that Firefox, "through ethical distributions like GNU IceCat and Abrowser, can weaken that stranglehold.") "Google's deprecation of the JPEG-XL image format in February in favor of its own patented AVIF format might not end the web in the grand scheme of things, but it does highlight, once again, the disturbing amount of control it has over the platform generally." Part of Google's official rationale for the deprecation is the following line: "There is not enough interest from the entire ecosystem to continue experimenting with JPEG-XL." Putting aside the problematic aspects of the term "ecosystem," let us remark that it's easy to gauge the response of the "entire ecosystem" when you yourself are by far the largest and most dangerous predator in said "ecosystem." In relation to Google's overwhelming power, the average web user might as well be a microbe. In supposedly gauging what the "ecosystem" wants, all Google is really doing is asking itself what Google wants... While we can't link to Google's issue tracker directly because of another freedom issue — its use of nonfree JavaScript — we're told that the issue regarding JPEG-XL's removal is the second-most "starred" issue in the history of the Chromium project, the nominally free basis for the Google Chrome browser. Chromium users came out of the woodwork to plead with Google not to make this decision. It made it anyway, not bothering to respond to users' concerns. We're not sure what metric it's using to gauge the interest of the "entire ecosystem," but it seems users have given JPEG-XL a strong show of support. In turn, what users will be given is yet another facet of the web that Google itself controls: the AVIF format. As the response to JPEG-XL's deprecation has shown, our rallying together and telling Google we want something isn't liable to get it to change its mind. It will keep on wanting what it wants: control; we'll keep on wanting what we want: freedom. Only, the situation isn't hopeless. At the present moment, not even Google can stop us from creating the web communities that we want to see: pages that don't run huge chunks of malicious, nonfree code on our computers. We have the power to choose what we run or do not run in our browsers. Browsers like GNU IceCat (and extensions like LibreJS and JShelter> ) help with that. Google also can't prevent us from exploring networks beyond the web like Gemini. What our community can do is rally support behind those free browsers that choose to support JPEG-XL and similar formats, letting the big G know that even if we're smaller than it, we won't be bossed around.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/04/16/002204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New Spectre-Related 'Medium Severity' Flaw Patched in Linux Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 17 Apr '23

17 Apr '23

'"The Spectre vulnerability that has haunted hardware and software makers since 2018 continues to defy efforts to bury it," reports the Register: On Thursday, Eduardo (sirdarckcat) Vela Nava, from Google's product security response team, disclosed a Spectre-related flaw in version 6.2 of the Linux kernel. The bug, designated medium severity, was initially reported to cloud service providers — those most likely to be affected — on December 31, 2022, and was patched in Linux on February 27, 2023. "The kernel failed to protect applications that attempted to protect against Spectre v2, leaving them open to attack from other processes running on the same physical core in another hyperthread," the vulnerability disclosure explains. The consequence of that attack is potential information exposure (e.g., leaked private keys) through this pernicous problem.... Spectre v2 — the variant implicated in this particular vulnerability — relies on timing side-channels to measure the misprediction rates of indirect branch prediction in order to infer the contents of protected memory. That's far from optimal in a cloud environment with shared hardware... The bug hunters who identified the issue found that Linux userspace processes to defend against Spectre v2 didn't work on VMs of "at least one major cloud provider."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/04/16/0143259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Releases Emergency Chrome Security Update
by Peter Reutemann 17 Apr '23

17 Apr '23

'"Earlier this week, Google released an emergency security update for the Chrome browser due to a vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild," reports Hot Hardware: On Friday, Google highlighted CVE-2023-2033, reported by Clément Lecigne of Google's own Threat Analysis Group (TAG). This vulnerability is a 'type confusion' bug in the JavaScript engine for Chromium browsers useing the V8 Javascript engine. In short, type confusion is a bug that allows memory to be accessed with the wrong type, allowing for the reading or writing of memory out of bounds. The CVE page says that an attacker could create an HTML page that allows the exploitation of heap corruption. While there is no Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score attached to the vulnerability yet, Google is tracking this as a "high" severity issue. This is likely due in part to the fact that "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild." The article notes that Chrome updates are generally done automatically, but you can also check for updates by clicking Chrome's three-dots menu in the top-right corner, then "Help" and "About Chrome."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/04/16/2057239 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Feeling Competition From Linux In ... Gaming?!?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Apr '23

14 Apr '23

Here’s another interesting development in the Windows-Linux rivalry: in gaming, of all places. The Steam Deck is a Linux-based handheld gaming PC which could, in principle, run Windows. Trouble is, Windows doesn’t offer any good UI options for working with this form factor <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/handheld-mode-for-windows-could-mak…>. So there is talk of developing a new “handheld mode” for Windows. Of course, for Linux, there is no “mode” in the OS for this, it’s just a different configuration of the GUI layer. Which is modular and completely replaceable.

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Watch Out For Those USB Charging Ports!
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Apr '23

12 Apr '23

Something else to worry about: the US FBI, and NZ CERT, are advising travellers not to use public USB charging ports, because they can be a way to hack into your device <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/fbi-warns-travellers-not-to-use-public-ch…>. When I was in Hong Kong Airport a few years ago, it was very hard for me to find a mains outlet to charge my laptop. Just about all the ports built into the public seating areas were USB ones, for phones/tablets.

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New Attack On Car Security: “CAN Injection”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Apr '23

07 Apr '23

CANbus is a mini-LAN built into every car manufactured this century. It is increasingly being used for all kinds of functions, like controlling “smart headlamps”, and of course unlocking the doors and letting you get into the car and drive off. Now it turns out that there are ways to connect to the bus through weak points from outside the vehicle, for example by breaking into the connections for those “smart headlamps”. From here, you can do things like spoof signals from the smart key receiver, fooling the security system into thinking it has received a signal from a valid owner’s key when it hasn’t. And once you’ve done that, you can steal the car. Because, of course, components on the bus are trusting the signals they get from other components, aren’t they? <https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/06/can_injection_attack_car_theft/>

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