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PowerPC Fork of Firefox Reaches End of the Road
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

'Ars Technica: It has been well over a decade since PowerPC Macs roamed the earth -- so long that the Intel Macs that replaced them are themselves being replaced by something else. But to this day, there's a small community of people still developing software for PowerPC Macs and Mac OS 9. One of those projects was TenFourFox, a fork of the Firefox browser for G3, G4, and G5-based PowerPC Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5. Maintained primarily by Cameron Kaiser, the TenFourFox project sprang up in late 2010 after Mozilla pulled PowerPC support from Firefox 4 during its development. And amazingly, the browser has continued to trundle on ever since. But continuing to backport Firefox features to aging, stuck-in-time PowerPC processors only got more difficult as time went on. And in March of this year, Kaiser announced that TenFourFox updates would be ending after over a decade of development. The final planned release of TenFourFox was earlier this month. Kaiser's full post is long, but it's worth a read for vintage-computer enthusiasts or anyone who works on software -- Kaiser expresses frustration with the realities of developing and supporting a niche app, but he also highlights TenFourFox's impressive technical achievements and ruminates on the nature of the modern Internet and open source software development [...]. Kaiser doesn't intend to fully halt work on the browser, but he is downshifting it into what he calls "hobby mode." He will continue to backport security patches from newer ESR releases of Firefox and post them to the TenFourFox Github page, but anyone who wants to use these will need to build the app themselves. Kaiser also won't commit to providing support for these additions or providing them on any kind of schedule. Other developers are also welcome to continue to release TenFourFox builds on their own. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/2116255 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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Modular Framework Laptop Gets Marketplace For All Those Modules
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

'Framework, makers of the modular 13.5-inch Framework laptop that's designed to be easily repaired and upgraded, has launched a dedicated marketplace filled with replacement parts and upgrades for its portable computer. The Verge reports: Writing in a blog post, the company said the marketplace is currently focused on replacement parts and expansion cards, but that it hopes to add more customization modules like additional language keyboards later this year, as well as third-party and community developed modules in 2022. The marketplace already includes a range of expansion cards for the laptop, which are designed to slot into its four modular compartments to add everything from extra storage to features like MicroSD card slots or more USB ports. There's also user upgradeable RAM and storage for sale. But the store is clearly a work in progress, and lists a host of other items like replacement CPU-equipped mainboards, keyboards, and spare parts like batteries and displays as "coming soon." ' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/2110258 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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OpenBSD 7.0 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

'Everyone's favorite security-focused operating system, OpenBSD, released version 7.0 today. In addition to the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements, support for RISC-V processors has been added. The changelog and mirrors can be found at their respective links.' -- source: https://bsd.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/217206 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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Canonical Releases Ubuntu Linux 21.10 Impish Indri
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

'Following a brief beta-testing period, Ubuntu 21.10 has finally become available to download in the "final" stable form. BetaNews: Code-named "Impish Indri," this version of Ubuntu is not a Long Term Support (LTS) version, so it is only supported for nine months. Ubuntu 21.10 features Linux kernel 5.13 and a Snap variant of the Mozilla Firefox browser. "Ubuntu 21.10 brings the all-new PHP 8 and GCC 11 including full support for static analysis, greatly improving everyday developer security awareness in low-level programming. With Gnome 40 desktop users gain dynamic workspaces and touchpad gestures. The new Firefox snap, published by Mozilla, improves security and guarantees access to both the latest and the extended support release versions of the browser. The exact same versions of the browser are available on multiple different versions of Ubuntu, simplifying enterprise developer platform management," says Canonical.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/2013235 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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LibreOffice, OpenOffice Bug Allows Hackers To Spoof Signed Docs
by Peter Reutemann 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

'LibreOffice and OpenOffice have pushed updates to address a vulnerability that makes it possible for an attacker to manipulate documents to appear as signed by a trusted source. Although the severity of the flaw is classified as moderate, the implications could be dire. BleepingComputer reports: The discovery of the flaw, which is tracked as CVE-2021-41832 for OpenOffice, was the work of four researchers at the Ruhr University Bochum. The same flaw impacts LibreOffice, which is a fork of OpenOffice spawned from the main project over a decade ago, and for their project is tracked as CVE-2021-25635. If you're using either of the open-source office suites, you're advised to upgrade to the latest available version immediately. For OpenOffice, that would be 4.1.10 and later, and for LibreOffice, 7.0.5 or 7.1.1 and later. Since neither of these two applications offer auto-updating, you should do it manually by downloading the latest version from the respective download centers -- LibreOffice, OpenOffice. If you're using Linux and the aforementioned versions aren't available on your distribution's package manager yet, you are advised to download the "deb", or "rpm" package from the Download center or build LibreOffice from source. If updating to the latest version is not possible for any reason, you can always opt to completely disable the macro features on your office suite, or avoid trusting any documents containing macros. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/10/11/212215 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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New 'FontOnLake' Malware Family Can Target Linux Systems
by Peter Reutemann 11 Oct '21

11 Oct '21

'Security Week reports: A previously unknown, modular malware family that targets Linux systems has been used in targeted attacks to collect credentials and gain access to victim systems, ESET reported on Thursday. Dubbed FontOnLake, the malware family employs a rootkit to conceal its presence and uses different command and control servers for each sample, which shows how careful its operators are to maintain a low profile. What's more, the malware developers are constantly modifying the FontOnLake modules, and use three categories of components that have been designed to work together, namely trojanized applications, backdoors, and rootkits. Evidence suggests that FontOnLake has been used in attacks aimed at organizations in Southeast Asia. The first malware samples related to this family emerged last May. The malware was previously described by Avast and Lacework as the HCRootkit / Sutersu Linux rootkit, as well as by Tencent Security Response Center in a February report. The various trojanized applications that ESET's researchers have identified during their investigation are used to load custom backdoor or rootkit modules, but also to collect sensitive data when needed. Posing as standard Linux utilities, these files were also designed to achieve persistence on the compromised systems. What the researchers haven't figured out yet is the manner in which the trojanized applications are delivered to the victims. ESET's analysis of FontOnLake has revealed the use of three different backdoors, all written in C++, all using the same Asio library from Boost, and all capable of exfiltrating sshd credentials and bash command history. The simplest of the three was designed to launch and mediate access to a local SSH server, update itself, and transmit collected credentials. The malware appears to be under development. The second backdoor was also capable of file manipulation, updating itself, and uploading and downloading files, according to the article, while the third backdoor "accepts remote connections, serves as a proxy and can download and run Python scripts, in addition to exfiltrating credentials."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/21/10/10/000240 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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All Linux and Mac Computers Get Their Time Zones From the Same Database
by Peter Reutemann 11 Oct '21

11 Oct '21

'"All Linux and Mac-based computers pull their time zones from a massively important database — the time zone database," explains Medium's tech site OneZero. And this vastly crucial project is ultimately overseen by one man who Medium calls "The Time Zone King." The process of defining time zones is centralized. This is actually quite a big deal in its own right because people tend to grossly underestimate how pivotal Linux is to ... the entire internet and technology as we know it... The time zone database — which is sometimes called the Olson data or zoneinfo database — has a fascinating history... Not only are time zones apparently a longstanding menace for computer developers, but the time zone maintenance community is currently, it seems, mired among some procedural dispute regarding how this essential database should best be maintained. Of course that's an interesting fact in its own right: there is a world time zone data community. In fact, The Register recently described them as being no less than " up in arms " about the direction the project was proceeding down... A difference of vision among time zone enthusiasts might be the neatest summary anybody can advance.... Not only can't the time zone titans currently agree on the best way to carry the timezone database forward, it seems. But the entire process of codifying and standardizing time zones is also decidedly contentious political business with a long and tumultuous history to go with it. Those who enter the fray need to be therefore not only technical heavyweights but also prepared to have the occasional audacity to stand up to countries like the Hashemite Republic of Jordan and tell them that their attempt to prematurely end DST is unacceptable and will not be promulgated in the database... Weary time zone mavericks are bursting to the seams with horror stories of African states who made rash time zone decisions on only four days' notice... Time zone data insiders say that every single one of these high stakes deliberations represents a near Y2K disaster that must be averted... At the helm of this project is one individual. One guy. Paul Eggert, a computer scientist who teaches at the Department of Computer Science at the University of California's LA Campus... This is a man, after all, whose codebase helps hundreds of millions of users know what time zone they're in and who — for the past ten years — has gone to bed knowing that hundreds of millions of computers are using his code to know what time zone they're in. He's lived under that pressure for over a decade. And by all accounts thrived... Untold millions have been made by startups announcing dubious advents upon existing technologies heralded with the breathless fanaticism of companies announcing that they have found a way to turn air water into oil. Many of these will vanish into oblivion within a few short years. The time zone database won't. Because it can't. And those at the very bottom of the tech stack — those tirelessly and thanklessly maintaining open source projects upon which so much of the world's computing derives — languish in comparable obscurity... In recent years, the project has fallen under the purview of ICANN [through its Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]. Its code reads like a cross between a JSON file and a historical novel. And while I'm sure the project has many noteworthy contributors, there's ultimately one guy who's responsible for maintaining it. The Time Zone King. His name is Paul Eggert. And he's a computer scientist based out of UCLA. We probably all owe him a 'thank you'.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/10/10/1950239 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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I can't log into trademe and entering an URL dosen't work
by Michelle 10 Oct '21

10 Oct '21

Hi, I bought on disc the new version of Manjaro Plasma 64 bit KDE because the old Manjaro Illyria 18.0 64 bit I was using stopped working with various things. The new one won't allow me to log into tradme. I enter my email and password and it won't work just like the old one wouldn't. Plasma allows me to see pictures on tumblr whereas the old one stopped allowing that about 2 months ago. And youtube still works. But the new one has another big problem. For security issues I run a computer off a DVD and have no hard drive. When I want to go into any site that requires a password like email or trademe, this is what I do. I boot up, I pull up firefox, I type in the URL for trademe or what have you, and press enter, then and only then do I connect to the internet and click to 'retry' that site and then once at the site the first thing I do is log in. But this new Plasma won't allow me to do that. So could I please have some suggestions for two things: How to make this new one work in those two circumstances AND/OR Some specific names of Operating Systems that will actually allow logging into trademe and will allow URL's to be typed in. Thanks for any help.

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Firefox Now Sends Your Address Bar Keystrokes To Mozilla
by Peter Reutemann 10 Oct '21

10 Oct '21

'How-To Geek reports: Firefox now sends more data than you might think to Mozilla. To power Firefox Suggest, Firefox sends the keystrokes you type into your address bar, your location information, and more to Mozilla's servers. Here's exactly what Firefox is sharing and how to control it. This change was made as part of the introduction of Firefox Suggest in Firefox 93, released on October 5, 2021. As part of Firefox Suggest, Firefox is getting ads in your search bar -- but that's not the only thing that will be news to longtime Firefox users. According to Mozilla, "Firefox Suggest acts as a trustworthy guide to the better web, surfacing relevant information and sites to help people accomplish their goals." In reality, what that means is, when you start typing in your address bar, you won't just see the standard search suggestions from Google or your current search default engine. You'll also see "Firefox Suggest" results pointing to web pages. Some of them are sponsored ads, but you can disable the ads. Firefox Suggest is on by default. Mozilla's blog post on the subject says Firefox Suggest is an "opt-in experience," which was the case in September 2021 -- but it's now enabled by default in Firefox 93. However, as of Firefox 93's release in October 2021, Firefox Suggest is only enabled in the USA -- for now. It's worth noting that, for many years, Firefox and other web browsers have had search suggestions in their address bar. So, when you start typing "win" in your address bar, you may see suggestions for "Windows 11" and "Window repair." This is accomplished by sending keystrokes to your default search engine as you type in the search bar, as Mozilla's support site explains. Mozilla is also providing contextual suggestions, for which it needs more data, including the city you're located in and whether you're clicking its suggestions. You can disable Firefox's suggested results, if you like. This will stop Mozilla from collecting the data you type in your search bar, and it will also disable the suggested results and ads. To do so, open Firefox and click menu [and then] Settings. Select "Privacy [and] Security" in the left pane, and scroll down to "Address Bar -- Firefox Suggest." Disable "Contextual suggestions" and "Include occasional sponsored suggestions" to stop Firefox from sending data to Mozilla.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/10/08/2225217 I saw that "Firefox suggest" popping up with the latest 93 as well and, when I tried to turn it off, didn't find the "Firefox suggest" option in the settings dialog that got mentioned in various articles. Something that p...ed me off somewhat... However, looking through the slashdot comments, I came across this github gist called "Silent Firefox": https://gist.github.com/AetherEternity/5a6bb6e493a3d34988fc7342013f2ea6 The top of the file lists where to place this "user.js" file. NB: You might already have such a file, so check before you overwrite it... Personally, I like suggestions from my history (which is turned off in this gist, key: "browser.urlbar.suggest.history"), so I forked the gist and enabled it: https://gist.github.com/fracpete/408ce83d3ce48f9f95b2fea30ddf5403 I'm not particularly fond of this move by Mozilla, but at least you can still tweak its browser (though it's become harder for non-technical people). 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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Firefox Now Shows Ads As Sponsored Address Bar Suggestions
by Peter Reutemann 08 Oct '21

08 Oct '21

'Mozilla is now showing ads in the form of sponsored Firefox contextual suggestions when U.S. users type in the URL address bar. Mozilla says the feature was introduced with Firefox 92 in September to fund development and optimization. Mozilla describes Firefox Suggest contextual suggestions as opt-in, in BleepingComputer's tests and from what users have reported, the feature is on by default. Furthermore, Firefox doesn't tag the ads displayed via Firefox Suggest. There is no clear way to identify what a sponsored suggestion and what a regular unsponsored suggestion should look like. The only way Firefox users will know whether a sponsored suggestion is an ad would be by looking at the URL, but, in many cases, the URL is not clearly visible.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/10/07/1844254 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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