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Multiple Security Issues in Screen (mostly affecting release 5.0.0 and setuid-root installations)
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'In July 2024, the upstream Screen maintainer asked us [2] if we could have a look at the current Screen code base. We treated this request with lower priority, since we already had a cursory look at Screen a few years earlier, without finding any problems. When we actually found time to look into it again, we were surprised to find a local root exploit in the Screen 5.0.0 major version update affecting distributions that ship it as setuid-root (Arch Linux and NetBSD). We also found a number of additional, less severe issues that partly also affect older Screen versions still found in the majority of distributions.' -- source: https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/12/1 Cheers, Peter

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FreeBSD Wants to Know a Few Things
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'The FreeBSD Core Team and the FreeBSD Foundation have a few questions it would like to ask its users. What this means is that it’s survey time at FreeBSD… again. In other words, 2024’s user survey turns out not to have been the one-off we thought it was, and the FreeBSD Community Survey is looking like it’s going to become an annual event. This year’s survey was announced on Friday will run through May 7. Taking it won’t take much time — 15 minutes the organization says on its website — and the information gleaned from the results will be key for keeping the project on track. The foundation says that last year’s survey was used to help it determine the project’s priorities — which can change from year to year — as well as a guide for its development efforts and community engagement strategies for the upcoming year and beyond. The surveys are helpful for identifying user needs, assessing satisfaction levels, and highlighting areas requiring improvement, such as hardware support, documentation, and contribution processes.' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2025/04/freebsd-wants-to-know-a-few-things/ Link to survey in the referenced article. Anybody on the mailing list using a BSD variant currently? Cheers, Peter

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Redis returns to open source with AGPLv3 license but not everyone is happy
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'Over the last few years, companies like Redis, Elastic, MongoDB, and HashiCorp have abandoned their open-source license roots and switched to proprietary models. However, there is one significant problem with this attempt to squeeze more money from their formerly open-source programs: it doesn't work. Redis, the widely used in-memory key-value database, appears to have figured this out. Last year, Redis dumped its three-clause Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license and replaced it with the read-only Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1). Now, Redis has officially returned to an open-source license, announcing that Redis 8 will be available under the open-source GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3). Last year's change was intended to prevent large cloud providers from offering Redis as a managed service without contributing to the project, a challenge many open-source companies face in the cloud era. However, the move ticked off developers. The result was a fork, Valkey, backed by the Linux Foundation and major cloud vendors. Valkey has proven to be very popular. Indeed, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Ericsson, and Oracle have all adopted Valkey. [...] The new AGPLv3 option, effective with the recently released Redis 8, represents a significant shift. AGPLv3 is an Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved, copyleft license that requires any modifications or derivative works to be released under the same terms, and crucially, mandates that source code be made available to users who interact with the software over a network. This network clause is meant to close the so-called "Software as a Service (SaaS) loophole," ensuring that cloud providers who offer Redis as a service must either open-source their changes or negotiate a commercial license with Redis Inc.' -- source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/redis-returns-to-open-source-with-agplv3-lice… Cheers, Peter

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Nextcloud Cries Foul Over Google Play Store App Rejection
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'Nextcloud has accused Google of sabotaging its Android Files app by revoking the "All files access" permission, which the company says cripples functionality for its 824,000 users and forces reliance on limited alternatives like SAF and MediaStore. The Register reports: Nextcloud's Android Files app is a file synchronization tool that, according to the company, has long had permission to read and write all file types. "Nextcloud has had this feature since its inception in 2016," it said, "and we never heard about any security concerns from Google about it." That changed in 2024, when someone or something at Google's Play Store decided to revoke the permission, effectively crippling the application. Nextcloud was instructed to use "a more privacy-aware replacement." According to Nextcloud, "SAF cannot be used, as it is for sharing/exposing our files to other apps ... MediaStore API cannot be used as it does not allow access to other files, but only media files." Attempts to raise the issue with Google resulted in little more than copy-and-pasted sections of the developer guide. "Despite multiple appeals from our side and sharing additional background, Google is not considering reinstating upload for all files," Nextcloud said. The issue seems to stem from the Play Store. While a fully functional version is available on F-Droid, the Play Store edition is subject to Google's imposed limitations. Regarding the All files access permission, Google's developer documentation states: "If you target Android 11 and declare All files access, it can affect your ability to publish and update your app on Google Play." Nextcloud is clearly aggrieved by the change, as are its users. "This might look like a small technical detail but it is clearly part of a pattern of actions to fight the competition," it said. "What we are experiencing is a piece of the script from the big tech playbook." [...] Are there nefarious actors at play here, an automated process that auto-rejects apps with elevated access requirements, or is it just simple incompetence? "Either way," Nextcloud said, "it results in companies like ours just giving up, reducing functionality just to avoid getting kicked out of their app store." "The issue is that small companies -- like ours -- have pretty much no recourse," it added. Nextcloud went on to criticize oversight processes as slow-moving, with fines that sound hefty but amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. "Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/13/2045258 Cheers, Peter

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openSUSE Removes Deepin Desktop Over Security Policy Violations
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '25

09 May '25

'In recent development, the openSUSE project has decided to remove the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), well-known for its polished visuals and user-friendly experience, from its repositories, citing substantial packaging policy violations. According to disclosures from the openSUSE security team, a troubling workaround was discovered in the DDE packaging. Specifically, the Deepin community packager introduced a “license agreement” dialog within the deepin-feature-enable package, effectively circumventing standard security review processes required by openSUSE. Ordinarily, components such as D-Bus system service configurations and Polkit policies must undergo stringent review by the SUSE security team before being whitelisted for inclusion in openSUSE distributions. In this case, however, the discovered “license agreement” allowed users to bypass these security checks, installing components flagged by the security team as potentially unsafe simply by accepting the license.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/opensuse-removes-deepin-desktop-over-security-policy-v… Cheers, Peter

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Linux Drops Support For 486 and Early Pentium Processors
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '25

09 May '25

'ZDNet reports: RIP, 486 processor. You've had a long run since Intel released you back in 1989. While Microsoft stopped supporting you with the release of Windows XP in 2001, Linux kept you alive and well for another 20+ years. But all good things must come to an end, and with the forthcoming release of the Linux 6.15 kernel, the 486 and the first Pentium processors will be sunsetted. Why? Linus Torvalds wrote recently on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), "I really get the feeling that it's time to leave i486 support behind. There's zero real reason for anybody to waste one second of development effort on this kind of issue." Senior Linux kernel developer Ingo Molnar put Torvalds' remark into context, writing, "In the x86 architecture, we have various complicated hardware emulation facilities on x86-32 to support ancient 32-bit CPUs that very very few people are using with modern kernels. This compatibility glue is sometimes even causing problems that people spend time to resolve, which time could be spent on other things." "This will be the first time Linux has dropped support for a major chip family since 2012, when Linux stopped supporting the 386 family," notes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. "Moving forward, the minimum supported x86 CPU will now be the original Pentium (P5) or newer, requiring the presence of the Time Stamp Counter (TSC) and the CMPXCHG8B (CX8) instruction. These features are absent in the older 486 and early 586 processors, such as the IDT WinChip and AMD Elan families." That said, you can continue running Linux on Pentium CPUs, but you'll have to "run museum kernels," as Torvalds pointed out in 2022 when he first floated the idea of ending support for 486.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/05/08/1927245 Cheers, Peter

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Android Maintainer of Linux Distro AnduinOS Revealed to Be Microsoft Employee
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '25

09 May '25

'After gaining attention from Neowin and DistroWatch last week, the sole maintainer behind AnduinOS 1.3 -- a Linux distribution styled to resemble Windows 11 -- decided to reveal himself. He turns out to be Anduin Xue, a Microsoft software engineer, who has been working on the project as a personal, non-commercial endeavor built on Ubuntu. Neowin reports: As a Software Engineer 2 at Microsoft (he doesn't work on Windows), Anduin Xue says he's financially stable and sees no need to commercialize AnduinOS. Explaining the financial aspects of the project, he said: "Many have asked why I don't accept donations, how I profit, and if I plan to commercialize AnduinOS. Truthfully, I haven't thoroughly considered these issues. It's not my main job, and I don't plan to rely on it for a living. Each month, I dedicate only a few hours to maintaining it. Perhaps in the future, I might consider providing enterprise solutions based on AnduinOS, but I won't compromise its original simplicity. It has always been about providing myself with a comfortably themed Ubuntu." In our coverage of the AnduinOS 1.3 release last week, one commenter pointed out that the distro is from China. For some, this will raise issues, but Anduin Xue addressed this in his blog post, too, saying that the source code is available to the public. For this reason, he told lacing the operating system with backdoors for the Chinese government would be "irrational and easily exposed." For those worried that the distribution may be abandoned, Anduin Xue said that he intends to continue supporting it and may even maintain it full-time if sponsorship or corporate cooperation emerges.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/05/08/1912204 Cheers, Peter

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New GNOME Executive Director Named
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '25

08 May '25

'Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Last July it was announced Holly Million was stepping down as the GNOME Foundation's Exeuctive Director after less than a year at the helm. Richard Littauer took over as interim Executive Director while this week a new GNOME Foundation Executive Director was hired. GNOME's new Executive Director is Steven Deobald. Steven Deobald is a Canadian free software advocate and has been a GNOME user since 2002. As the GNOME Foundation Executive Director, Steven wants to focus on transparency and to better ensure financial stability of the GNOME Foundation. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/07/200259 Cheers, Peter

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Memory-Safe Sudo To Become the Default In Ubuntu
by Peter Reutemann 07 May '25

07 May '25

'Blog post from the Trifecta Tech Foundation, a nonprofit organization that creates secure, open source building blocks for infrastructure software. The foundation is also the developer behind Sudo-rs. From the report: Ubuntu 25.10 is set to adopt sudo-rs by default. Sudo-rs is a memory-safe reimplementation of the widely-used sudo utility, written in the Rust programming language. This move is part of a broader effort by Canonical to improve the resilience and maintainability of core system components. [...] The decision to adopt sudo-rs is in line with Canonical's commitment to Carefully But Purposefully increase the resilience of critical system software, by adopting Rust. Rust is a programming language with strong memory safety guarantees that eliminates many of the vulnerabilities that have historically plagued traditional C-based software. Sudo-rs is part of the Trifecta Tech Foundation's Privilege Boundary initiative, which aims to handle privilege escalation with memory-safe alternatives. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/06/213254 Cheers, Peter

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Open Document Format Turns 20
by Peter Reutemann 07 May '25

07 May '25

' The Open Document Format reached its 20th anniversary on May 1, marking two decades since OASIS approved the XML-based standard originally developed by Sun Microsystems from StarOffice code. Even as the format has seen adoption by several governments including the UK, India, and Brazil, plus organizations like NATO, Microsoft Office's proprietary formats remain the de facto standard. Microsoft countered ODF by developing Office Open XML, eventually getting it standardized through Ecma International. "ODF is much more than a technical specification: it is a symbol of freedom of choice, support for interoperability and protection of users from the commercial strategies of Big Tech," said Eliane Domingos, Chair of the Document Foundation, which oversees LibreOffice -- a fork created after Oracle acquired Sun.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/06/0050212 Cheers, Peter

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