September 2023 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Developer Creates 'Dark Style' GNOME Extension for Ubuntu 23.10
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '23

25 Sep '23

'In GNOME Shell there's a dark background for the Quick Settings menu, the calendar applet, and desktop notification-- but in Ubuntu 23.10, "the default Yaru theme uses a light style for GNOME Shell elements," according to the blog OMG Ubuntu. "But there's a new GNOME extension that lets you change this without affecting the rest of your desktop..." You can make GNOME Shell dark in Ubuntu by turning the 'Dark Style' toggle on but that also makes apps use a dark theme too. Not everyone wants that; they want a 'mixed' look... [I]f you would like to use dark GNOME Shell elements in Ubuntu 23.10 without using the dark mode preference (which, as said, will turn your apps dark too) then the Dark Style GNOME extension is exactly what you need. It only works with Ubuntu 23.10 and GNOME 45.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/09/24/2317206 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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Android phones get PC webcam capabilities in the latest beta
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '23

25 Sep '23

'Here's a fun new use for your Android phone: A PC webcam! In the latest Android beta, plugging a phone into a PC will reveal a new option in the USB Preferences menu for webcam functionality. Just pick that option instead of the default "file transfer," and the phone camera will register itself as a webcam. Then you can fire up Zoom and start video calling. The Android build with this feature is "Android 14 QPR1 Beta 1." Android's getting confusing with all these overlapping betas, but the current stable version is still Android 13. Android 14, currently on its 10th beta/developer preview, will most likely be out alongside the Pixel 8 in October. Android 14 QPR1 is the quarterly release after the first stable build of Android 14, and it should be out around December. (QPR stands for quarterly platform release.) These happen between major releases, often marketed as "feature drops." Right now, Android 13 is technically "Android 13 QPR3."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/android-phones-get-pc-webcam-capabi… 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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Behind the Scenes at 'Have I Been Pwned'
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '23

25 Sep '23

'The founder of the data-breach notification site Have I Been Pwned manages "the largest known repository of stolen data on the planet," reports Australia's public broadcaster ABC, including over 6 billion email address. Yet with no employees, Troy Hunt manages all of the technical and operational aspects single-handedly, and "has ended up playing an oddly central role in global cybersecurity." Troy is very careful with how he handles what he finds. He only collects (and encrypts) the mobile numbers, emails and passwords that he finds in the breaches, discarding the victims' names, physical addresses, bank details and other sensitive information. The idea is to let users find out where their data has been leaked from, but without exposing them to further risk. Once he identifies where a data breach has occurred, Troy also contacts the organisation responsible to allow it to inform its users before he does. This, he says, is often the hardest step of the process because he has to convince them it's legitimate and not some kind of scam itself. He's not required to give organisations this opportunity, much less persist when they ignore his messages or accuse him of trying to shake them down for money. But there's evidence that this approach is working. Despite the legal grey area he has operated in for a decade now, he's avoided being sued by any of the organisations responsible for the 705 breaches that are now searchable on Have I Been Pwned. These days, major tech companies like Mozilla and 1Password use Have I Been Pwned, and Troy likes to point out that dozens of national governments and law enforcement agencies also partner with his service... "He's not a company that's audited. He's just a dude on the web," says Jane Andrew, an expert on data breaches at the University of Sydney. "I think it's so shocking that this is where we find out information about ourselves. She says governments and law enforcement have, in general, left it to individuals to deal with the fallout from data breaches... Without an effective global regulator, Professor Andrew says, a crucial part of the world's cybersecurity infrastructure is left to rely on the goodwill of this one man on the Gold Coast.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/09/24/201233 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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LMDE-5 download
by john 24 Sep '23

24 Sep '23

I recently decided to try LMDE-5 Mate version. I found all my usual download sources were returning a 404 error, Checked again at 9.35am https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4281 Has this been pulled for some reason??

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Linux gives up on 6-year LTS kernels, says they’re too much work
by Peter Reutemann 21 Sep '23

21 Sep '23

'The LTS (long-term support) period for the Linux kernel is being cut down. In 2017, the kernel jumped from two years of support to six. Now, six years later, it turns out that's a lot of work. ZDNet reports that at the Open Source Summit Europe this week (videos will be out in a few weeks), Linux Weekly News executive editor Jonathan Corbet announced the Linux kernel will return to two years of LTS support. The plan to cut back down to two years isn't instant. The Linux community is still honoring the current end-of-life timelines, so 6.1, 5.15, 5.10, 5.4, 4.19, and 4.14 are still six years, but new kernels will only get two years. Even this six-year window was supposed to be an optional thing when it started, with the release page FAQ saying, "Each new longterm kernel usually starts with only a 2-year projected EOL that can be extended further if there is enough interest from the industry at large to help support it for a longer period of time." The reality was that everything received a six-year life span, and now that will no longer be the case. Corbet cited a mix of lack of use and a lack of support for why Linux is cutting back on LTS kernels. Corbet says, "There's really no point to maintaining [old kernels] for that long because people are not using them." The other big problem is the burnout from maintainers, which are often unpaid and could use a lot more support from the billion-dollar companies that benefit from using Linux.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/linux-gives-up-on-6-year-lts-thats-… 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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The Signal Protocol used by 1+ billion people is getting a post-quantum makeover
by Peter Reutemann 21 Sep '23

21 Sep '23

'The Signal Foundation, maker of the Signal Protocol that encrypts messages sent by more than a billion people, has rolled out an update designed to prepare for a very real prospect that’s never far from the thoughts of just about every security engineer on the planet: the catastrophic fall of cryptographic protocols that secure some of the most sensitive secrets today. The Signal Protocol is a key ingredient in the Signal, Google RCS, and WhatsApp messengers, which collectively have more than 1 billion users. It’s the engine that provides end-to-end encryption, meaning messages encrypted with the apps can be decrypted only by the recipients and no one else, including the platforms enabling the service. Until now, the Signal Protocol encrypted messages and voice calls with X3DH, a specification based on a form of cryptography known as Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman. [...] There is little disagreement, however, that there will come a day when many of the most widely used forms of encryption will die at the hands of quantum computing. To head off that doomsday eventuality, engineers and mathematicians have been developing a new class of PQC, short for post-quantum cryptography. The PQC added to the Signal Protocol on Monday is called PQXDH. It uses the same X3DH specification the Signal Protocol has always employed. On top, it adds an additional layer of encryption using Crystals-Kyber, one of four PQC algorithms the National Institute of Standards and Technology selected last year as a potential replacement to ECC and other quantum-vulnerable forms of encryption.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/09/signal-preps-its-encryption-engine… 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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Terraform Fork Gets Renamed OpenTofu, Joins Linux Foundation
by Peter Reutemann 21 Sep '23

21 Sep '23

'TechCrunch: When HashiCorp announced it was changing its Terraform license in August, it set off a firestorm in the open source community, and actually represented an existential threat to startups that were built on top of the popular open source project. The community went into action and within weeks they had written a manifesto, and soon after that launched an official fork called OpenTF. Today, that group went a step further when the Linux Foundation announced OpenTofu, the official name for the Terraform fork, which will live forever under the auspices of the foundation as an open source project. At the same time, the project announced it would be applying for entry into the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). "OpenTofu is an open and community-driven response to Terraform's recently announced license change from a Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPLv2) to a Business Source License v1.1 providing everyone with a reliable, open source alternative under a neutral governance model," the foundation said in a statement. The name is deliberately playful says Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman from the OpenTofu founding team, who is also co-founder of Gruntwork. "I'm glad your reaction was to laugh. That's a good thing. We're trying to keep things a little more humorous," Brikman told TechCrunch, but the group is dead serious when it comes to building an open fork. [...] "The first thing was to get an alpha release out there. So you can go to the OpenTofu website and download OpenTofu and start using it and trying it out," he said. "Then the next thing is a stable release. That's coming in the very near future, but there's work to do. Once you have a stable release, people can start using it. Then we can start growing adoption, and once we start growing adoption, some of the big players will start stepping in when some of the big players start stepping in other big players will start stepping in as well."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/09/20/1951214 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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Chinese hackers have unleashed a never-before-seen Linux backdoor
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '23

19 Sep '23

'Researchers have discovered a never-before-seen backdoor for Linux that’s being used by a threat actor linked to the Chinese government. The new backdoor originates from a Windows backdoor named Trochilus, which was first seen in 2015 by researchers from Arbor Networks, now known as Netscout. They said that Trochilus executed and ran only in memory, and the final payload never appeared on disks in most cases. That made the malware difficult to detect. Researchers from NHS Digital in the UK have said Trochilus was developed by APT10, an advanced persistent threat group linked to the Chinese government that also goes by the names Stone Panda and MenuPass. Other groups eventually used it, and its source code has been available on GitHub for more than six years. Trochilus has been seen being used in campaigns that used a separate piece of malware known as RedLeaves. In June, researchers from security firm Trend Micro found an encrypted binary file on a server known to be used by a group they had been tracking since 2021. By searching VirusTotal for the file name, libmonitor.so.2, the researchers located an executable Linux file named “mkmon”. This executable contained credentials that could be used to decrypt libmonitor.so.2 file and recover its original payload, leading the researchers to conclude that “mkmon” is an installation file that delivered and decrypted libmonitor.so.2. The Linux malware ported several functions found in Trochilus and combined them with a new Socket Secure (SOCKS) implementation. The Trend Micro researchers eventually named their discovery SprySOCKS, with “spry” denoting its swift behavior and the added SOCKS component. SprySOCKS implements the usual backdoor capabilities, including collecting system information, opening an interactive remote shell for controlling compromised systems, listing network connections, and creating a proxy based on the SOCKS protocol for uploading files and other data between the compromised system and the attacker-controlled command server.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/09/never-before-seen-linux-backdoor-i… 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 Mint Debian Edition' Begins Public Beta Testing
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '23

18 Sep '23

'This week saw the public beta-testing release of "Linux Mint Debian Edition". Besides listing download locations, its release notes also list out the project's three goals: - Ensure Linux Mint would be able to continue to deliver the same user experience - See how much work would be involved if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. - Guarantee the software we develop is compatible outside of Ubuntu. 9to5Linux reports: Based on the Debian GNU/Linux 12 "Bookworm" operating system series, Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 is powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.1 LTS kernel series and features the latest Cinnamon 5.8 desktop environment that was introduced with the Linux Mint 21.2 "Victoria" release in July 2023â¦ [T]his release comes with a new look and feel thanks to newly added folder icons with different color variants, improved consistency of tooltips to look the same across different apps and desktops, support for symbolic icons that adapt to their background, and full support for HEIF and AVIF' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/09/16/2147219 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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KSMBD Finally Reaches 'Stable' State in Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.6
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '23

18 Sep '23

'When Linus Torvalds announced Linux kernel 6.6's first release candidate, it included a newly-stable version of KSMBD, which is Samsung's in-kernel server for the SMB protocol (for sharing files/folders/printers over a network). An announcement in 2021 had said that "For many cases the current userspace server choices were suboptimal either due to memory footprint, performance or difficulty integrating well with advanced Linux features." LWN noted at the time that Linux has been using "the user-space Samba solution since shortly after the beginning." In a sense, ksmbd is not meant to compete with Samba; indeed, it has been developed in cooperation with the Samba project. It is, however, meant to be a more performant and focused solution than Samba is; at this point, Samba includes a great deal of functionality beyond simple file serving. Ksmbd claims significant performance improvements on a wide range of benchmarks...One other reason — which tends to be spoken rather more quietly — is that a new implementation can be licensed under GPLv2, while Samba is GPLv3. The Register notes that when Samba switched to GPL 3, "one result was that Apple dropped Samba from Mac OS X and replaced it with its own, in-house server called SMBX." And they also remember that a month after its debut in 2021, "Linux sysadmins got to enjoy KSMBD's first security exploit." What's changed now is that it has faced considerable security testing and as a result it is no longer marked as experimental. It's been developed with the assistance of the Samba team, which itself documents how to use it. It's compatible with existing Samba configuration files. As the team says, "It is not meant to replace the existing Samba fileserver 'smbd', but rather be an extension and will integrate with Samba in the future...." KSMBD is also important in that placing such core server functionality right inside the kernel represents a significant potential attack surface for crackers... The new bcachefs file system will not be going into kernel 6.6, and its developer is not happy. "It's taken some time to get KSMBD to a state that was considered stable," points out Linux magazine. That time has come, and KSMBD is planned for Linux kernel 6.6.: But why is KSMBD important? First off, it promises considerable performance gains and better support for modern features such as Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)... KSMBD also adds enhanced security, considerably better performance for both single and multi-thread read/write, better stability, and higher compatibility. In the end, hopefully, this KSMBD will also mean easier share setups in Linux without having to jump through the same hoops one must with the traditional Samba setup.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/09/16/0412208 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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