- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Longtime Debian Developer Tollef Fog Heen Resigns From Systemd Maintainer Team
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '14

17 Nov '14

'Debian developer Tollef Fog Heen submitted his resignation to the Debian Systemd package maintainers team mailing list today (Sun. Nov. 16th, 2014). In his brief post, he praises the team, but claims that he cannot continue to contribute due to the "load of continued attacks...becoming just too much." Presumably, he is referring to the heated and, at times, even vitriolic criticism of Debian's adoption of Systemd as the default init system for its upcoming Jessie release from commenters inside and outside of the Debian community. Currently, it is not known if Tollef will cease contributing to Debian altogether. A message from his twitter feed indicates that he may blog about his departure in the near future.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/16/2142244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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81% of Tor Users Can Be De-anonymized By Analysing Router Information
by Peter Reutemann 15 Nov '14

15 Nov '14

"A former researcher at Columbia University's Network Security Lab has conducted research since 2008 indicating that traffic flow software included in network routers, notably Cisco's 'Netflow' package, can be exploited to deanonymize 81.4% of Tor clients. Professor Sambuddho Chakravarty, currently researching Network Anonymity and Privacy at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, uses a technique which injects a repeating traffic pattern into the TCP connection associated with an exit node, and then compares subsequent aberrations in network timing with the traffic flow records generated by Netflow (or equivalent packages from other router manufacturers) to individuate the 'victim' client. In laboratory conditions the success rate of this traffic analysis attack is 100%, with network noise and variations reducing efficiency to 81% in a live Tor environment. Chakravarty says: 'it is not even essential to be a global adversary to launch such traffic analysis attacks. A powerful, yet non- global adversary could use traffic analysis methods [] to determine the various relays participating in a Tor circuit and directly monitor the traffic entering the entry node of the victim connection.'" -- source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/11/14/1851245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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FreeBSD 10.1 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Nov '14

15 Nov '14

"Version 10.1 of the venerable FreeBSD operating system has been released. The new version of FreeBSD offers support for booting from UEFI, automated generation of OpenSSH keys, ZFS performance improvements, updated (and more secure) versions of OpenSSH and OpenSSL and hypervisor enhancements. FreeBSD 10.1 is an extended support release and will be supported through until January 1, 2017." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/14/11/14/2159223 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu Linux Will Work To Slowly Demphasize 32-bit
by Peter Reutemann 13 Nov '14

13 Nov '14

"Canonical isn't yet prepared to drop 32-bit Ubuntu ISOs outright, but over time -- and particularly at or just after Ubuntu 16.04 -- they will work to demphasize the existence of the 32-bit releases and work to push more users to 64-bit Ubuntu as a main focus. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgzODE Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Security Distros Compared: Tails vs. Kali vs. Qubes
by Peter Reutemann 13 Nov '14

13 Nov '14

"If you're interested in security, you've probably already heard of security-focused Linux distros like Tails, Kali, and Qubes. They're really useful for browsing anonymously, penetration testing, and tightening down your system so it's secure from would-be hackers. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of all three. - Tails Provides Security Through Anonymity - Kali Is All About Offensive Security - Qubes Offers Security Through Isolation" -- source: http://goo.gl/vomgra Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Groupon backs down from GNOME over trademark, will change product name
by Peter Reutemann 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

'UPDATE: Groupon has decided to use a name other than "Gnome" for its tablet platform for merchants. "After additional conversations with the open source community and the Gnome Foundation, we have decided to abandon our pending trademark applications for 'Gnome,'" the company said. "We will choose a new name for our product going forward."' -- source: http://goo.gl/p5IXl7 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Pitivi Video Editor Surpasses 50% Crowdfunding Goal, Releases Version 0.94
by Peter Reutemann 10 Nov '14

10 Nov '14

'With the latest developments, Pitivi is proving to truly be a promising libre video editor for GNU distributions as well as a serious contender for bringing libre video production up to par with its proprietary counterparts. Since launching a beautifully well-organized crowdfunding campaign (as covered here previously), the team has raised over half of their 35,000 € goal to pay for full-time development and has entered "beta" status for version 1.0. They've released two versions, 0.94 (release notes) being the most recent, which have brought full MPEG-TS/AVCHD support, porting to Python 3, lots of UX improvements, and—of course—lots and lots of bug fixes. The next release (0.95) will run on top of Non Linear Engine, a refined and incredibly more robust backend Pitivi developers have produced to replace GNonLin and bring Pitivi closer to the rock-solid stability needed for the final 1.0 release.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/10/2045244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Joey Hess Resigns From Debian
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '14

08 Nov '14

'Long-time Debian developer Joey Hess has posted a resignation letter to the Debian mailing list. Hess was a big part of the development of the Debian installer, debhelper, Alien, and other systems. He says, "It's become abundantly clear that this is no longer the project I originally joined in 1996. We've made some good things, and I wish everyone well, but I'm out. ... If I have one regret from my 18 years in Debian, it's that when the Debian constitution was originally proposed, despite seeing it as dubious, I neglected to speak out against it. It's clear to me now that it's a toxic document, that has slowly but surely led Debian in very unhealthy directions."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/08/1448234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Canonical officially unveils its OpenStack distro
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '14

08 Nov '14

'Any doubts you might have had about Canonical, best known for its Ubuntu Linux distribution, refocusing it energy on cloud-based Linux rather than desktop or mobile Linux were put to rest at the OpenStack Summit. [...] With Canonical Distribution for Ubuntu OpenStack, which is now in public beta, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said: "This is a complete autopilot for your private cloud."' -- source: http://www.zdnet.com/canonical-officially-unveils-its-openstack-distro-7000… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Major Performance Improvement Discovered For Intel's GPU Linux Driver
by Peter Reutemann 07 Nov '14

07 Nov '14

"LunarG, on contract with Valve Software, discovered a critical shortcoming with the open-source Intel Linux graphics driver that was handicapping the performance. A special bit wasn't being set by the Linux driver but was by the Windows driver, which when enabled is increasing the Linux performance in many games by now ~20%+, which should allow for a much more competitive showing between Intel OpenGL performance on Windows vs. Linux. However, the patch setting this bit isn't public yet as apparently it's breaking video acceleration in certain cases." -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/11/07/1237236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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OpenSUSE 13.2 Released
by Peter Reutemann 06 Nov '14

06 Nov '14

"The latest version of the openSUSE distribution, 13.2, has been officially released. Key features include integrated support for filesystem snapshots, enabled by a switch to btrfs as the default file system, a new network manager (Wicked), as well as the usual version updates. This release includes seven supported desktop environments (KDE 4.14, GNOME 3.14, Xfce, LXDE, Enlightenment 19, Mate and Awesome) and even preview packages of Plasma 5.1, all presented with a unified openSUSE theme. Download LiveUSB and DVD images now from software.opensuse.org/132." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/06/1837227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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WLUG meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 06 Nov '14

06 Nov '14

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "Virtualization has been become commonplace nowadays, with lots of different implementations. Docker provides an as-thin-as-possible approach, making use of the kernel's functionality of resource isolation, eliminating the need for installing an operating system for the guest system. Andrew Parnasov will give an introduction to Docker, how to set it up, how to use and what it can be used for." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/197652482/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fedora 21 Beta Released
by Peter Reutemann 04 Nov '14

04 Nov '14

"The Fedora Project has been critical to the development Red Hat Enterprise Linux — RHEL version 7 was largely based off Fedora version 19. Fedora is continuing to evolve with the announcement of Fedora 21 Beta, now available from the Fedora Project website. To make the release ready for Beta testing required addressing 50 beta blocker bugs. If the Fedora Project developers are able to keep up with the final release blocker bugs, then Fedora 21 is expected to be released on December 9th. As a result, support for Fedora 19 is expected to end around the beginning of 2015. Released back in July 2013, Fedora 19 will have been supported for over 540 days by 2015. Previously, the longest a Fedora release was supported was Fedora Core 5 at 469 days. Users of Fedora 19 will be encouraged to upgrade to Fedora 20 or 21 to continue to get critical updates." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/04/201215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Trisquel 7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 04 Nov '14

04 Nov '14

"Trisquel 7.0 Belenos has been released. Trisquel is a "free as in freedom" GNU/Linux distribution endorsed by the FSF. This latest release includes Linux-libre 3.13, GNOME 3.12, Abrowser 33 (based on Firefox), the Electrum Bitcoin client and many more new features and upgrades. Trisquel 7.0 will be supported until 2019. " -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/04/0517220 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Breaching Air-Gap Security With Radio
by Peter Reutemann 31 Oct '14

31 Oct '14

Not quite Linux, but interesting (scary?) nonetheless... "Security researcher Mordechai Guri with the guidance of Prof. Yuval Elovici from the cyber security labs at Ben-Gurion University in Israel presented at MALCON 2014 a breakthrough method ("AirHopper") for leaking data from an isolated computer to a mobile phone without the presence of a network. In highly secure facilities the assumption today is that data can not leak outside of an isolated internal network. It is called air-gap security. AirHopper demonstrates how the computer display can be used for sending data from the air-gapped computer to a near by smartphone. The published paper and a demonstration video are at the link." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/10/31/141207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Vulnerabilities Found (and Sought) In More Command-Line Tools
by Peter Reutemann 30 Oct '14

30 Oct '14

"The critical Shellshock vulnerabilities found last month in the Bash Unix shell have motivated security researchers to search for similar flaws in old, but widely used, command-line utilities. Two remote command execution vulnerabilities were patched this week in the popular wget download agent and tnftp client for Unix-like systems [also mentioned here]. This comes after a remote code execution vulnerability was found last week in a library used by strings, objdump, readelf and other command-line tools." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/10/30/2130248 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux computer program brings a smile where it's least expected
by Peter Reutemann 30 Oct '14

30 Oct '14

"Reglue is an organization that has been placing Linux computers in the homes of financially disadvantaged kids since 2005. The program started in central Texas and we'd love to see it grow [...]. Using Linux as the operating system has not been a matter of religion or partisanship. Not even a matter of personal choice. It's a matter of pragmatic necessity. To give you a better picture of why, here's the story of Ricky. In short: We installed a computer for a financially-disadvantaged kid. We taught that kid how to use the computer. That kid was supremely happy with his new Linux computer. We left. The end." -- source: http://opensource.com/life/14/10/reglue-program-linux-computers-kids Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Dangerous Vulnerability Fixed In Wget
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '14

29 Oct '14

'A critical flaw has been found and patched in the open source Wget file retrieval utility that is widely used on UNIX systems. The vulnerability is publicly identified as CVE-2014-4877. "It was found that wget was susceptible to a symlink attack which could create arbitrary files, directories or symbolic links and set their permissions when retrieving a directory recursively through FTP," developer Vasyl Kaigorodov writes in Red Hat Bugzilla. A malicious FTP server can stomp over your entire filesystem, tweets HD Moore, chief research officer at Rapid 7, who is the original reporter of the bug.' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/10/29/1333216 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fwd: [NZOSS-Openchat] Your Drupal website has a backdoor
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '14

29 Oct '14

Apologies if you received this already. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bevan Rudge Date: Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 8:37 AM Subject: [NZOSS-Openchat] Your Drupal website has a backdoor If you administer a Drupal website or know anyone who does, please make sure they see this: Drupal Core - Highly Critical - Public Service announcement - PSA-2014-003 https://www.drupal.org/PSA-2014-003 The short version is; if a Drupal website was not patched within 7 hours of the announcement of Dupal-core-SA-2014-005 (aka Drupageddon) on 16 October (NZ time), it probably has backdoors, and data should be assumed to be compromised. The only safe and certain recovery is to get a new server and restore from backups from before that date. In many ways this is worse than Heartbleed because it is so easy much easier to exploit, and the attacker can get any data they ask for (with Heartbleed, I believe an attacker didn't know what data they were looking at) and control all of Drupal. Most attacks seem to be installing backdoors for sending spam or future amplification of other attacks. But there are many different types of exploits, so assume anything and everything. Cheers, Bevan/ http://Drupal.geek.nz http://Twitter.com/BevanR Sent from Auckland, New Zealand _______________________________________________ Openchat mailing list Openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/openchat -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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OpenBSD Drops Support For Loadable Kernel Modules
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '14

28 Oct '14

"The OpenBSD developers have decided to remove support for loadable kernel modules from the BSD distribution's next release. Several commits earlier this month stripped out the loadable kernel modules support. Phoronix's Michael Larabel has not yet found an official reason for the decision to drop support. He wagers that it is due to security or code quality/openness ideals." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/14/10/28/1852214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Firefox OS Coming To Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '14

28 Oct '14

"Mozilla plans to build a version of its Firefox OS for use in the Raspberry Pi. Plans are afoot to build a version capable of (1) being run on the Pi hardware and (2) eventually achieving parity with Raspbian and (3) enable easy development for robotics." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/10/27/2348204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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New Oculus SDK Adds Experimental Linux Support and Unity Free For Rift Headset
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '14

25 Oct '14

"Oculus, creator of the Rift VR headset, has released a new version of their SDK which brings with it long sought-after support for Linux, which the company says is "experimental." Linux support was previously unavailable since the launch of the company's second development kit, the DK2. The latest SDK update also adds support for Unity Free, the non-commercial version of the popular game authoring engine. Previously, Unity developers needed the Pro version—costing $1,500 or $75/month—to create experiences for the Oculus Rift." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/25/1725224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Italian Supreme Court Bans the 'Microsoft Tax'
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '14

25 Oct '14

'In a post at the Free Software Foundation, lawyer Marco Ciurcina reports that the Italian Supreme Court has ruled the practice of forcing users to pay for a Windows license when they buy a new PC is illegal. Manufacturers in Italy are now legally obligated to refund that money if a buyer wants to put GNU/Linux or another free OS on the computer. Ciurcina says, "The focus of the Court's reasoning is that the sale of a PC with software preinstalled is not like the sale of a car with its components (the 4 wheels, the engine, etc.) that therefore are sold jointly. Buying a computer with preinstalled software, the user is required to conclude two different contracts: the first, when he buys the computer; the second, when he turns on the computer for the first time and he is required to accept or not the license terms of the preinstalled software. Therefore, if the user does not accept the software license, he has the right to keep the computer and install free software without having to pay the 'Microsoft tax.'"' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/10/25/1443210 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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5 Deadly Linux Commands You Should Never Run
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '14

23 Oct '14

"As a Linux user, you probably have searched online for articles and tutorials that show you how to use the terminal to run some commands. While most of these commands are harmless and could help you become more productive, there are some commands that are deadly and could wipe out your whole machine." -- source: http://goo.gl/fmIOxY I love the obscurity of the fork bomb! Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Turn a Raspberry Pi Into a Super Cheap, Packet-Sniffing Power Strip
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '14

23 Oct '14

"If you have a Raspberry Pi and one of those surge protectors that also protects your network cables from voltage fluctuations, you have most of the tools you need to build a cheap network observation device, as long as you're not afraid to use a soldering iron. When you're finished, you'll have the perfect addition to your pen-testing toolkit. " -- source: http://lifehacker.com/5952327 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How Red Hat is Transforming from a Server-Client to Cloud-Mobile Leader
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '14

23 Oct '14

'Red Hat has become a role model for other companies by writing a success story based on open source software and Linux, without a single proprietary component in the soup. The company continues to evolve and transform itself with the changing times to remain a leader, and not simply relevant, unlike many other software giants that are struggling in the market. Everyone is moving towards cloud and mobile; the consumer space has totally switched gears to cloud and mobile, and enterprises aren't far behind. Thomas E. Hogan, CEO of Kony Inc., said a few weeks ago, “With the number of mobile applications downloaded from app stores expected to increase by a 31.7 percent CAGR by 2017, enterprises are realizing that a mobile strategy is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must have."' -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/case-studies/792591 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu 14.10 Released With Ambitious Name, But Small Changes
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '14

23 Oct '14

'Ubuntu 14.10, dubbed Utopic Unicorn, has been released today (here are screenshots). PC World says that at first glance "isn't the most exciting update," with not so much as a new default wallpaper — but happily so: it's a stable update in a stable series, and most users will have no pressing need to update to the newest version. In the Ubuntu Next unstable series, though, there are big changes afoot: Along with Mir comes the next version of Ubuntu’s Unity desktop, Unity 8. Mir and the latest version of Unity are already used on Ubuntu Phone, so this is key for Ubuntu's goal of convergent computing — Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu desktop will use the same display server and desktop shell. Ubuntu Phone is now stable and Ubuntu phones are arriving this year, so a lot of work has gone into this stuff recently. The road ahead looks bumpy however. Ubuntu needs to get graphics drivers supporting Mir properly. The task becomes more complicated when you consider that other Linux distributions — like Fedora — are switching to the Wayland display server instead of Mir. When Ubuntu Desktop Next becomes the standard desktop environment, the changes will be massive indeed. But for today, Utopic Unicorn is all about subtle improvements and slow, steady iteration.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/23/1946243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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wlug meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '14

23 Oct '14

Hi there We've got a WLUG meeting tomorrow - due to Labor Day a week earlier that usual. 'Greg B.: A talk with an overview of the so-called "Crypto2.0" open source projects that are attempting to be overlays for the bitcoin network. Why does bitcoin need overlays and possible future directions in cryptofinance in general? A brief round-up of the emerging Crypto2.0 projects out there, Counterparty, Mastercoin, Bitshares, Ripple, Stellar, Next and CoinSpark. Then a more in-depth discussion of Open-Transactions (openTXS). Peter R.: Running OwnCloud on a Raspberry Pi.' http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/212122742/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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BitTorrent Performance Test: Sync Is Faster Than Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '14

22 Oct '14

"Now that its file synchronization tool has received a few updates, BitTorrent is going on the offensive against cloud-based storage services by showing off just how fast BitTorrent Sync can be. More specifically, the company conducted a test that shows Sync destroys Google Drive, Microsoft's OneDrive, and Dropbox. The company transferred a 1.36 GB MP4 video clip between two Apple MacBook Pros using two Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapters, the Time.gov site as a real-time clock, and the Internet connection at its headquarters (1 Gbps up/down). The timer started when the file transfer was initiated and then stopped once the file was fully synced and downloaded onto the receiving machine. Sync performed 8x faster than Google Drive, 11x faster than OneDrive, and 16x faster than Dropbox." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/10/22/2012258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Raspberry Pi Founder Demos Touchscreen Display For DIY Kits
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '14

22 Oct '14

'Over 4 million Raspberry Pis have been sold so far, and now founder Eben Upton has shown off a touchscreen display panel that's designed to work with it. It's a 7" panel, roughly tablet sized, but slightly thicker. "With the incoming touchscreen panel The Pi Foundation is clearly hoping to keep stoking the creative fires that have helped drive sales of the Pi by slotting another piece of DIY hardware into the mix." Upton also discussed the Model A+ Raspberry Pi board — an updated version they'll be announcing soon.' -- source: http://build.slashdot.org/story/14/10/22/1532200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Take Control With Open Source Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '14

22 Oct '14

"Free and open source software are no good without open hardware. If we can't install our software on a piece of hardware, it's not good for anything. Truly open hardware is fully-programmable and replicable: OSHWA, Raspberry Pi, OLinuXino, Arduino, BeagleBoard, RepRap 3D Printer, Open Prosthetics, OpenROV Submarine, Open Source Cell Phones" -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/peripherals/792185 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Delivering Malicious Android Apps Hidden In Image Files
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '14

22 Oct '14

"Researchers have found a way to deliver a malicious app to Android users by hiding it into what seems to be an encrypted image file, which is then delivered via a legitimate, seemingly innocuous wrapper app. Fortinet malware researcher Axelle Apvrille and reverse engineer Ange Albertini created a custom tool they dubbed AngeCryption, which allows them to encrypt the payload Android application package (APK) and make it look like an image (PNG, JPG) file . They also had to create another APK that carries the "booby-trapped" image file and which can decrypt it to unveil the malicious APK file and install it. A malicious app thusly encrypted is nearly invisible to reverse engineers, and possibly even to AV solutions and Google's Android Bouncer." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/10/21/1325236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu 16.04 Might Be The Distribution's Last 32-Bit Release
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '14

21 Oct '14

"Ubuntu contributor Bryan Quigley is considering a proposal to make Ubuntu 16.04 LTS the last release of Ubuntu with 32-bit installation images. Come April 2016, Intel 32-bit users might be on their last, overdue leg for upgrading their distribution. Quigley is considering a proposal to kill off the 32-bit install (ISO) images after that point while support for 32-bit applications on 64-bit Ubuntu would still be supported. The proposal would only involve Intel/AMD x86 with 32-bit ARM being unaffected given that 32-bit ARM is still very common to devices. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgxOTQ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Yubikey, Lastpass and Brewpi.
by chris 21 Oct '14

21 Oct '14

Hi all, I've posted my notes from last Monday's meeting here. It's the slide show plus a few links. https://github.com/WLUG/meetings Cheers, Chris

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Features GNOME Developers Want In The Linux Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '14

21 Oct '14

'Made into a concise list is a number of features that GNOME developers want to see landed within the Linux kernel, in hopes of kernel developers eventually tackling these wish list features that could help not only GNOME but other desktops too. Bastien Nocera wrote to the kernel mailing list explaining, "GNOME has had discussions with kernel developers in the past, and, fortunately, in some cases we were able to make headway. There are however a number of items that we still don't have solutions for, items that kernel developers might not realise we'd like to rely on, or don't know that we'd make use of if merged." Among the features sought after in the kernel include a hibernation mode not using SWAP space, native hybrid suspend support in the kernel, a connected stand-by suspend mode, screen backlight guidelines, time changes for files/folders within a sub-directory, LinuxApps containers support (OverlayFS and KDBUS), memory compression being enabled by default for capable hardware, and various other changes. ' -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgxOTI Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Microsoft “Loves Linux” as it Makes Azure Bigger, Better
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '14

21 Oct '14

"In San Francisco on Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said something that was more than a little surprising: Microsoft loves Linux. The operating system once described as a "cancer" by Nadella's predecessor, Steve Ballmer, is now being embraced with open arms (if not extended), at least when it comes to Redmond's Azure cloud platform. Nadella told us that some 20 percent of VMs on Azure use the open source operating system." -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/cloud-computing/792539 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Rejuvenate your Fedora desktop with Moka
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '14

21 Oct '14

"GNOME is cool and beautiful, and the default Adwaita theme has matured greatly since it was introduced in GNOME 3.0. In fact, the Adwaita theme in Fedora 21 is now looking better than ever. However, I have used it for a long time, and I kinda feel like using a different theme — After all, who doesn’t like to have a change once in a while? So, I decided to put new life into my desktop, and my search ended with the great moka project." -- source: http://fedoramagazine.org/rejuvenate-your-fedora-desktop-with-moka/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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wlug meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

Hi there We've got a WLUG meeting coming up next Monday - due to Labor Day a week earlier that usual. 'Greg B.: A talk with an overview of the so-called "Crypto2.0" open source projects that are attempting to be overlays for the bitcoin network. Why does bitcoin need overlays and possible future directions in cryptofinance in general? A brief round-up of the emerging Crypto2.0 projects out there, Counterparty, Mastercoin, Bitshares, Ripple, Stellar, Next and CoinSpark. Then a more in-depth discussion of Open-Transactions (openTXS). Peter R.: Running OwnCloud on a Raspberry Pi.' http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/212122742/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Debian's Systemd Adoption Inspires Threat of Fork
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

'It appears that systemd is still a hot topic in the Debian community. As seen earlier today, there is a new movement shaping up against the adoption of systemd for the upcoming stable release [of Debian], Jessie. They claim that "systemd betrays the UNIX philosophy"; it makes things more complex, thus breaking the "do one thing and do it well" principle.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/20/1944226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu Turns 10
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

"Scott James Remnant, now Technical Lead on ChromeOS, was a Debian developer before that. That's how he became involved from the beginning (becoming Developer Manager, and then serving on the Technical Board) on the little derivative distribution that Mark Shuttleworth decided to make of Debian Unstable, and for which the name Ubuntu was eventually chosen. On this date in 2004, Ubuntu 4.10 -- aka Warty Warthog, or just Warty -- was released, and Remnant has shared a detailed, nostalgic look back at the early days of the project that has (whatever else you think of it ) become one of the most influential in the world of open source and Free software. I was excited that Canonical sent out disks that I could pass around to friends and family that looked acceptably polished to them in a way that Sharpie-marked Knoppix CD-ROMs didn't, and that the polish extended to the installer, the desktop, and the included constellation of software, too." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/20/1356248 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME Developer Comes Up With New Animated Image Format
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

"Jasper St. Pierre who we're usually talking about on Phoronix due to his GNOME contributions related to Wayland support, shared today he's come up with a new animated image format to compete with GIF. While GIF is technologically out-of-date with its compression support and other features, alternative animated image file formats like APNG and MNG haven't taken off. However, Jasper ended up devising a new image format called XNG. XNG doesn't impose any restrictions, can support more complex functionality, and will work existing HTML5 browsers of today. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgxNjc Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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New open hardware: Raspberry Pi B+
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

"The main differences between the B+ and the Raspberry Pi model B are the new model has: - four USB ports (versus two in the model B) - a microSD card (versus a full size SD card in model B) - a video jack integrated with the audio jack (versus two separate jacks in the model B) - GPIO pins extended to 40 pins (versus 26 pins in the model B) - lower power consumption - four mounting holes What has not changed: - The price, it is $35 USD - The amount of RAM, it has 512 Mb" -- source: http://opensource.com/life/14/10/reviewing-new-raspberry-pi-b-board All in all, sounds like very reasonable changes - especially the 4 USB ports. Though would have preferred 1GB of RAM. :-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Tiny Wireless Device Offers Tor Anonymity
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

"The Anonabox router project, currently being funded through a Kickstarter campaign, has surpassed its original $7,000 crowdfunding goal by more than 10 times in just one day. The open source router device connects via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable making it harder for your IP address to be seen. While there have been other Tor-enabled routers in the past, they aren't small enough to fit in a shirt pocket like the Anonabox and they haven't offered data encryption on top of the routing network. The device, which is being pitched as a way for consumers to securely surf the web and share content (or allow businesses to do the same), is also being directed at journalists who may want to share stories in places where they might otherwise be censored." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/10/14/0035226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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After Negative User Response, ChromeOS To Re-Introduce Support For Ext{2, 3, 4}
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '14

19 Oct '14

'Only three days after the public learned that the ChromeOS project was going to disable ext2fs support for external drives (causing Linux users to voice many protests on websites like Slashdot and the issue tracker), the ChromeOS team now plans to support it again. To quote Ben Goodger's comment: "Thanks for all of your feedback on this bug. We've heard you loud and clear. We plan to re-enable ext2/3/4 support in Files.app immediately. It will come back, just like it was before, and we're working to get it into the next stable channel release."' -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/10/16/1228232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Test the new Firefox Hello WebRTC feature in Firefox Beta
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '14

19 Oct '14

"Firefox Hello provides more value to Firefox users by making it easier to communicate with your friends and family who might not have the same video chat service, software or hardware as you. It’s free to make voice and video calls and there’s no need to download software, plugins or even create an account." -- source: http://goo.gl/HoR1aS Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How To Install Chromium And Enable Pepper Flash Plugin
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '14

19 Oct '14

Lately, I've been a bit annoyed by my Chromium browser no longer working with flash, seemed to disable the flash plugin automatically (running Linux Mint 17). Usual workaround was to paste the URL in Firefox. But, alas, there is a fix for that: Pepper Flash Player. Check out the link below for instructions (applies to Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17, Pinguy OS 14.04 And Elementary OS 0.3): http://goo.gl/CNJ8Bt Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Tor Browser 4.0 and Tails 1.2 Update Released
by Peter Reutemann 18 Oct '14

18 Oct '14

"Tor - Privacy oriented encrypted anonymizing service, has announced the launch of its next version of Tor Browser Bundle, Tor version 4.0, which disables SSL3 to prevent POODLE attack and uses new transports that are intended to defeat the Great Firewall of China and other extremely restrictive firewalls." -- source: http://thehackernews.com/2014/10/privacy-tools-tor-browser-40-and-tails.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Drupal Fixes Highly Critical SQL Injection Flaw
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

'Drupal has patched a critical SQL injection vulnerability in version 7.x of the content management system that can allow arbitrary code execution. The flaw lies in an API that is specifically designed to help prevent against SQL injection attacks. "Drupal 7 includes a database abstraction API to ensure that queries executed against the database are sanitized to prevent SQL injection attacks," the Drupal advisory says. "A vulnerability in this API allows an attacker to send specially crafted requests resulting in arbitrary SQL execution. Depending on the content of the requests this can lead to privilege escalation, arbitrary PHP execution, or other attacks."' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/10/15/2048218 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Microsoft Partners With Docker
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

"Docker is teaming up with Microsoft to bring its open container technology to the next release of Windows Server. Docker Engine will work with the next release of Windows Server and images will be available in Docker Hub, which will also integrate directly into Microsoft Azure. The partnership moves Docker beyond Linux for the first time with new multi-container application capabilities for cloud and enterprise developers." -- source: http://slashdot.org/story/14/10/15/1656244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Google Finds Vulnerability In SSL 3.0 Web Encryption
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

"SSL 3.0 is nearly 15 years old, but support for it remains widespread. Most importantly, nearly all browsers support it and, in order to work around bugs in HTTPS servers, browsers will retry failed connections with older protocol versions, including SSL 3.0. Because a network attacker can cause connection failures, they can trigger the use of SSL 3.0 and then exploit this issue. Disabling SSL 3.0 support, or CBC-mode ciphers with SSL 3.0, is sufficient to mitigate this issue, but presents significant compatibility problems, even today. Therefore our recommended response (PDF) is to support TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV. This is a mechanism that solves the problems caused by retrying failed connections and thus prevents attackers from inducing browsers to use SSL 3.0. It also prevents downgrades from TLS 1.2 to 1.1 or 1.0 and so may help prevent future attacks." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/10/15/000239 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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