January 2025 - 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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Steam Deck & PC Gaming
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Feb '25

26 Feb '25

PC gaming is still a bigger business than consoles, according to <https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/01/way-more-game-makers-are-working-on-…>. And the Linux-powered Steam Deck has been pioneering the new handheld segment of the PC gaming market. But figures on Steam Deck sales are hard to come by. Here <https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/p/steam-deck-everything-you-were-afraid> is an attempt to tease out, from the available hints, how popular the product actually is. That article is over a year old by now, but it estimates that there were 3-4 million Steam Decks sold by that point. I think we can safely say another million or more in units has been added to that since then. One concrete figure from the Steam Hardware Survey <https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welc…> is that about 2.3% of all Steam users are on Linux. This looks like 0.7% specifically on the Steam Deck, so other Linux would be about 1.6%. Another linked survey reports that over half of Steam Deck users run other game emulation systems (e.g. PlayStation 2, Game Boy, GameCube) on their Decks.

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Facebook Flagging Linux Discussions as “Cybersecurity Threats”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Feb '25

03 Feb '25

Facebook is blocking posts and users that mention Linux, according to this report <https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/facebook-flags-linux-topics-as-…>. Distrowatch seems to have been the first to notice this, saying that many of its readers have reported trouble with Facebook. But the trouble is not confined to them. And when the site tried to report the issue, its complaint was firmly rejected, and the writer’s account was also locked. And yes, if you were wondering, doesn’t Facebook itself rely heavily on Linux? It does indeed: Facebook's overzealous ban on some Linux topics in the name of Community Standards and its protection of its users from threats come with a large ladle full of irony. "Facebook runs much of its infrastructure on Linux," DistroWatch points out, "and often posts job ads looking for Linux developers." My most charitable interpretation of this is some kind of over-reliance on automated AI-based procedures has got a bit out of hand ...

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Build-Your-Own Open-Source Laptop
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Jan '25

28 Jan '25

Looking further back at the Tom’s Hardware articles, I found this one <https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/student-builds-open-source-laptop-in-6…> about a senior high-school student’s project to build his own laptop from off-the-shelf parts. Its core is a Raspberry-Pi competitor, it has a 4K display, and can manage 7 hours of battery life. The entire effort took six months. And the result doesn’t look too shabby, either.

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Linux 6.14 Brings Some Systems Faster Suspend and Resume
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jan '25

28 Jan '25

'Amid the ongoing Linux 6.14 kernel development cycle, Phoronix spotted a pull request for ACPI updates which "will allow for faster suspend and resume cycles on some systems." Wikipedia defines ACPI as "an open standard that operating systems can use to discover and configure computer hardware components" for things like power management and putting unused hardware components to sleep. Phoronix reports: The ACPI change worth highlighting for Linux 6.14 is switching from msleep() to usleep_range() within the acpi_os_sleep() call in the kernel. This reduces spurious sleep time due to timer inaccuracy. Linux ACPI/PM maintainer Rafael Wysocki of Intel who authored this change noted that it could "spectacularly" reduce the duration of system suspend and resume transitions on some systems... Rafael explained in the patch making the sleep change: "The extra delay added by msleep() to the sleep time value passed to it can be significant, roughly between 1.5 ns on systems with HZ = 1000 and as much as 15 ms on systems with HZ = 100, which is hardly acceptable, at least for small sleep time values." One 2022 bug report complained a Dell XPS 13 using Thunderbolt took "a full 8 seconds to suspend and a full 8 seconds to resume even though no physical devices are connected." In November an Intel engineer posted on the kernel mailing list that the fix gave a Dell XPS 13 a 42% improvement in kernel resume time (from 1943ms to 1127ms).' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/01/25/2343225 Cheers, Peter

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Could New Linux Code Cut Data Center Energy Use By 30%?
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jan '25

26 Jan '25

'Two computer scientists at the University of Waterloo in Canada believe changing 30 lines of code in Linux "could cut energy use at some data centers by up to 30 percent," according to the site Data Centre Dynamics. It's the code that processes packets of network traffic, and Linux "is the most widely used OS for data center servers," according to the article: The team tested their solution's effectiveness and submitted it to Linux for consideration, and the code was published this month as part of Linux's newest kernel, release version 6.13. "All these big companies — Amazon, Google, Meta — use Linux in some capacity, but they're very picky about how they decide to use it," said Martin Karsten [professor of Computer Science in the Waterloo's Math Faculty]. "If they choose to 'switch on' our method in their data centers, it could save gigawatt hours of energy worldwide. Almost every single service request that happens on the Internet could be positively affected by this." The University of Waterloo is building a green computer server room as part of its new mathematics building, and Karsten believes sustainability research must be a priority for computer scientists. "We all have a part to play in building a greener future," he said. The Linux Foundation, which oversees the development of the Linux OS, is a founder member of the Green Software Foundation, an organization set up to look at ways of developing "green software" — code that reduces energy consumption. Karsten "teamed up with Joe Damato, distinguished engineer at Fastly" to develop the 30 lines of code, according to an announcement from the university. "The Linux kernel code addition developed by Karsten and Damato was based on research published in ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review" (by Karsten and grad student Peter Cai). Their paper "reviews the performance characteristics of network stack processing for communication-heavy server applications," devising an "indirect methodology" to "identify and quantify the direct and indirect costs of asynchronous hardware interrupt requests (IRQ) as a major source of overhead... "Based on these findings, a small modification of a vanilla Linux system is devised that improves the efficiency and performance of traditional kernel-based networking significantly, resulting in up to 45% increased throughput..."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/01/25/2111225 Cheers, Peter

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kiwix
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '25

23 Jan '25

Hi there Just stumbled across kiwix, an offline reader for things like Mediawiki (incl Wikipedia) and other books: https://kiwix.org/en/applications/ The library: https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng -- source: https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/113872764752277451 Cheers, Peter

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Wine 10.0 brings Arm Windows apps to Linux, still is not an emulator
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '25

23 Jan '25

'The open source Wine project—sometimes stylized WINE, for Wine Is Not an Emulator—has become an important tool for companies and individuals who want to make Windows apps and games run on operating systems like Linux or even macOS. The CrossOver software for Mac and Windows, Apple's Game Porting Toolkit, and the Proton project that powers Valve's SteamOS and the Steam Deck are all rooted in Wine, and the attention and resources put into the project in recent years have dramatically improved its compatibility and usefulness. Yesterday, the Wine project announced the stable release of version 10.0, the next major version of the compatibility layer that is not an emulator. The headliner for this release is support for ARM64EC, the application binary interface (ABI) used for Arm apps in Windows 11, but the release notes say that the release contains "over 6,000 individual changes" produced over "a year of development effort." ARM64EC allows developers to mix Arm and x86-compatible code—if you're making an Arm-native version of your app, you can still allow the use of more obscure x86-based plugins or add-ons without having to port everything over at once. Wine 10.0 also supports ARM64X, a different type of application binary file that allows ARM64EC code to be mixed with older, pre-Windows 11 ARM64 code. Wine's ARM64EC support does have one limitation that will keep it from working on some prominent Arm Linux distributions, at least by default: the release notes say it "requires the system page size to be 4K, since that is what the Windows ABI specifies." Several prominent Linux-on-Arm distributions default to a 16K page size because it can improve performance—when page sizes are smaller, you need more of them, and managing a higher number of pages can introduce extra CPU overhead.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/wine-10-0-released-adding-linux-com… Cheers, Peter

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TuxCare Stops Microsoft From Killing .NET 6.0
by Peter Reutemann 17 Jan '25

17 Jan '25

'TuxCare today announced that it’s added Microsoft’s .NET 6.0 to the roster of open-source platforms its supporting through its Endless Lifecycle Support program. This means that organizations that wish to continue using the platform, which reached end of life on Nov 12, 2024 and no longer receives updates, can continue to safely do so. TuxCare’s service will supply security patches for any vulnerabilities that arise in the software, just as it continues to patch long dead Linux distros. In times past, continuing to keep expired software in production was considered to be bad policy. These days, however, it’s becoming more common for sysadmins and DevOps teams to rely on services like TuxCare rather than go through the often frustrating and always time consuming and costly ordeal of upgrading, a process that often breaks essential secondary components which then have to be upgraded or fixed. When FOSS Force spoke with Joao Correia, a technical evangelist for both TuxCare and its parent company CloudLinux, he was quick to point out that supporting a product from Microsoft is something new, not only for TuxCare but for any of the companies that offer aftermarket support for expired open-source projects. “That’s somewhat of a departure in that we are now touching on proprietary Microsoft space which we hadn’t touched before,” he said. “At the same time, it’s an open-source project, and we have lots of experience with those types of projects and maintaining them.”' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2025/01/tuxcare-stops-microsoft-from-killing-net-6-0/ Cheers, Peter

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Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Now Works on the HiFive Premier P550 RISC-V Development Board
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jan '25

14 Jan '25

'Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced today that they’ve partnered with SiFive and ESWIN Computing to enable Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on the HiFive Premier P550 RISC-V development board. The HiFive Premier P550 is a RISC-V single-board computer powered by the ESWIN EIC7700X SoC with a SiFive Quad-Core P550 64-bit RISC-V processor running at 1.4 GHz and an integrated Imagination AXM-8-256 GPU supporting hardware accelerated video encoding up to 8K@25fps, hardware accelerated video decoding up to 8K@50fps, and hardware accelerated AI NPU with ~20 TOPS. The RISC-V board also features up to 32GB Samsung/Micron LPDDR5 RAM, 128GB Samsung eMMC storage, two 10/100/1000 Ethernet RJ45 connectors, a single Ethernet RJ45 connector for remote board management using dedicated MCU, an M.2 Key E connector for Wi-Fi / Bluetooth module, an HDMI 2.0 connector, a SATA 3 connector (6Gb/s), a JTAG Header, a microSD card connector, three fan headers, five USB 3 ports, and PCIe expansion slots. And the best thing for those who want to buy this 64-bit RISC-V development board for their projects is that it comes pre-installed with the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) operating system featuring the long-term supported and optimized Linux 6.6 LTS kernel series, which will receive updates until December 2026.' -- source: https://9to5linux.com/ubuntu-24-04-lts-now-works-on-the-hifive-premier-p550… Cheers, Peter

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Debian 12.9 “Bookworm” Arrives with 72 Bug Fixes and 38 Security Updates
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jan '25

14 Jan '25

'Today, the Debian Project announced the release and general availability of Debian 12.9 as the eighth ISO update to the latest Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” operating system series. Coming a little over two months after Debian 12.8 and powered the Linux 6.1 LTS series, Debian 12.9 is the eighth point release of Debian Bookworm. Yes, eighth, because Debian 12.3 was never released due to an issue in the EXT4 file system leading to data corruption so it doesn’t count. As with previous updates, Debian 12.9 is here to provide updated installation media to those who want to deploy the latest Debian Bookworm operating system on new hardware and they had issues with previous Debian 12 versions or don’t want to download hundreds of updates from the repositories after the installation. In numbers, this new release includes a total of 72 bug fixes for miscellaneous packages and 38 security updates. Details about these security and miscellaneous bug fixes can be found on the release announcement page.' -- source: https://9to5linux.com/debian-12-9-bookworm-arrives-with-72-bug-fixes-and-38… -- release: https://www.debian.org/News/2025/20250111 Cheers, Peter

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Mastodon’s founder cedes control, refuses to become next Musk or Zuckerberg
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jan '25

14 Jan '25

'Mastodon announced Monday that it's shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization—"affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual." This takes control of the social network away from its previous "ultimate decision-maker," Eugen Rochko. As founder, Rochko initially took the reins to ensure the decentralized platform would never be for sale and "would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual." His grand vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears in their timelines. The news comes after leaders of other social networks, like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have sparked backlash over sudden changes to popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter). For years, Musk has drawn criticism for changing Twitter's hate speech policies through his X rebranding. And more recently, Zuckerberg this month defended Meta's decision to relax hate speech policies (permitting women to be called "property" and gay people to be called "mentally ill") by calling bans on such speech "out of touch with mainstream discourse." Mastodon is hoping to provide an alternative social network for users who are potentially frustrated with their lack of control over their timelines and content on other networks. But to achieve the "envisioned independence" for all users, Mastodon's structure needed to "evolve," the blog said, "as the community grew" to about 1.5 million monthly active users in 2023. Remaining headquartered in Europe primarily, Mastodon's day-to-day operations will be managed by the new European not-for-profit entity, "establishing a new legal home for Mastodon." The user experience on Mastodon won't be affected much by the transition to a nonprofit owner, Mastodon said. But "changes are definitely in the pipeline."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/mastodon-becomes-nonprofit-to-m… Cheers, Peter

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Pilet: A Modular, Portable Mini-Computer Powered by Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jan '25

13 Jan '25

'Pilet is a retro-futuristic mini-computer that runs on the latest Raspberry Pi 5. It’s built to be fully modifiable, both in hardware and software, so you can escape the limitations of closed systems like iOS or Android. Pilet works with various Linux distributions and is compatible with Raspberry Pi OS out of the box. The team is also developing Pilet OS, a custom-optimized operating system for Pilet. Key Features of Pilet Here are some of Pilet's key features: - Raspberry Pi 5 Power: Pilet is powered by the Raspberry Pi 5, which offers a performance boost and supports advanced features like PCIe and NVMe storage. - Long Battery Life: With a 7-hour battery life, you can take your projects anywhere without being tied to a desk. - Open Source: Pilet is fully open source. After launch, the team will release schematics, PCB files, CAD files, and source code, so you can tweak and modify both the hardware and software. - Modular Design: Pilet’s modular design lets you add your own modules, like cameras, sensors, or even LTE connectivity. The team is also working on modules like NVMe and LTE. - VESA compatibility: Makes it easier and more secure to mount Pilet anywhere. - Active+passive cooling: A metal back combined with a fan keeps the Raspberry Pi 5 cool and running smoothly. - AI module support: Supports the Hailo-8L module, delivering 13 TOPS of processing power. - Rear stand: Allows users to position Pilet at any angle. - Custom battery management: Ensures stable performance even under demanding applications. - Simple and Practical: Pilet follows the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. It’s easy to use, with no extra drivers or complicated setups. All components are 3D-printable and customizable. Technical Specifications - Supported SBC: Raspberry Pi 5 - Power Source: 3.7V Lithium Polymer/Lithium-Ion Batteries, 5V USB-C - Screen: 5-inch or 7-inch IPS touchscreen - I/O: MicroHDMI (2x), USB 3.0 (2x), USB 2.0 (2x), Programmable GPIO - Network: Wi-Fi, LAN, Bluetooth 5.0, LTE (via module) - Storage: SD card, NVMe SSD (via module) - Dimensions: 175mm x 125mm x 28mm' -- source: https://ostechnix.com/pilet-modular-portable-mini-computer-powered-by-raspb… Looks funky! :-) Cheers, Peter

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German router maker is latest company to inadvertently clarify the LGPL license
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jan '25

13 Jan '25

'The GNU General Public License (GPL) and its "Lesser" version (LGPL) are widely known and used. Still, every so often, a networking hardware maker has to get sued to make sure everyone knows how it works. The latest such router company to face legal repercussions is AVM, the Berlin-based maker of the most popular home networking products in Germany. Sebastian Steck, a German software developer, bought an AVM Fritz!Box 4020 (PDF) and, being a certain type, requested the source code that had been used to generate certain versions of the firmware on it. According to Steck's complaint (translated to English and provided in PDF by the Software Freedom Conservancy, or SFC), he needed this code to recompile a networking library and add some logging to "determine which programs on the Fritz!Box establish connections to servers on the Internet and which data they send." But Steck was also concerned about AVM's adherence to GPL 2.0 and LGPL 2.1 licenses, under which its FRITZ!OS and various libraries were licensed. The SFC states that it provided a grant to Steck to pursue the matter. AVM provided source code, but it was incomplete, as "the scripts for compilation and installation were missing," according to Steck's complaint. This included makefiles and details on environment variables, like "KERNEL_LAYOUT," necessary for compilation. Steck notified AVM, AVM did not respond, and Steck sought legal assistance, ultimately including the SFC. Months later, according to the SFC, AVM provided all the relevant source code and scripts, but the suit continued. AVM ultimately paid Steck's attorney fee. The case proved, once again, that not only are source code requirements real, but the LGPL also demands freedom, despite its "Lesser" name, and that source code needs to be useful in making real changes to firmware—in German courts, at least. "The favorable result of this lawsuit exemplifies the power of copyleft—granting users the freedom to modify, repair, and secure the software on their own devices," the SFC said in a press release. "Companies like AVM receive these immense benefits themselves. This lawsuit reminded AVM that downstream users must receive those very same rights under copyleft."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/suing-wi-fi-router-makers-remains-a… Cheers, Peter

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Linux Foundation bands together Chromium browser makers in a “neutral space”
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '25

10 Jan '25

'Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers sounds like a very niche local meetup, one with hats and T-shirts that barely fit the name. But it's really a "neutral space" for funding and support, corralling together some big names with a stake in the future of Chrome's open source roots, Chromium. The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit started in 2000 that has grown to support a broader range of open source projects, spurred the initiative. In a press release, the Foundation states that the project will allow "industry leaders, academia, developers, and the broader open source community" to work on Chromium, with "much-needed funding and development support for open development of projects." A few names you don't often see together are already on board: Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Opera. Krystian Kolondra, executive vice president of browsers at Opera, stated in a release that "as one of the major browsers contributing to the Chromium project," Opera would "look forward to collaborating with members of the project to foster this growth and keep building innovative and compelling products for all users." How will this work? Kind of how Chromium has been working already. The group will have an open governance model, according to the Foundation, based on other Foundation initiatives based on "transparency, inclusivity, and community-driven development." The Linux Foundation's structure supports Kubernetes, Node.js, RISC-V, ONAP, and, of course, Linux, in such a manner. A Technical Advisory Committee will ensure the work done in the group "meets the needs of the wider Chromium community." Otherwise, the Chromium projects will keep to their existing governance structures.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/google-meta-microsoft-and-opera-agr… Cheers, Peter

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Red Hat In-Vehicle Linux Gets Closer to Go With New Certification
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jan '25

09 Jan '25

'There was good news on Monday for the futures of Linux in general and Red Hat in particular in the automotive sector. Less than six months after Red Hat announced that the Linux math library — a fundamental component of Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System — achieved ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety certification, it’s announced the achievement of functional safety certification of mixed criticality. All of this may sound like mumbo jumbo, which it is a bit, but it’s important mumbo jumbo as far as Red Hat’s efforts to build a turnkey open-source solution for software defined automobiles are concerned. And no matter how convoluted it sounds, this is not only good for Red Hat; it’s good for Linux. The keyword phrase in Red Hat’s announcement is “mixed criticality,” which basically means that Red Had has certified that its in-vehicle OS can safely execute several applications of different criticality –in this case safety-critical and non-safety critical — on the same system-on-chip running a single operating system.' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2025/01/red-hat-in-vehicle-linux-gets-closer-to-go-wi… Cheers, Peter

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"Make The Terminal More Enjoyable with These Linux Terminal Tools"
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '25

07 Jan '25

The following tools are mentioned in the article linked below: - tldr - btop - mc - zoxide - ripgrep - tmux - fzf - bat -- source: https://www.maketecheasier.com/linux-terminal-tools/ I'm quite liking btop and I've mc in the past when having only console access and requiring a two-panel file-manager. Cheers, Peter

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Here’s the Most Popular Databases for 2024
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '25

07 Jan '25

'The DB-Engines ranking of the most popular database management systems for January 2025 is now available. It features data from the past 12 months’ popularity trends for 423 databases, thus highlighting the platforms that dominated the data management scene over the past 2024. From traditional relational databases to modern NoSQL solutions, the list provides clear insights into trends in the tech sector, particularly in data storage and processing. Here’s a quick look at who came out on top and who fell short. Unsurprisingly, Oracle holds the top spot as the leading database, dominating the enterprise sector for many years. MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB complete the top five. Among them, MongoDB stands out as the sole NoSQL database in the group, while the other four represent the leading stars of the RDBMS segment.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/most-popular-databases-for-2024/ Cheers, Peter

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Time to check if you ran any of these 33 malicious Chrome extensions
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '25

07 Jan '25

'As many of us celebrated the year-end holidays, a small group of researchers worked overtime tracking a startling discovery: At least 33 browser extensions hosted in Google’s Chrome Web Store, some for as long as 18 months, were surreptitiously siphoning sensitive data from roughly 2.6 million devices. The compromises came to light with the discovery by data loss prevention service Cyberhaven that a Chrome extension used by 400,000 of its customers had been updated with code that stole their sensitive data.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/01/dozens-of-backdoored-chrome-extens… Cheers, Peter

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