- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Microsoft Acquires GitHub For $7.5B
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '18

04 Jun '18

'As rumored, Microsoft said Monday that it has acquired code repository website GitHub for a whopping sum of $7.5B in Microsoft stock. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman, founder of Xamarin and an open source veteran, will assume the role of GitHub CEO. GitHub's current CEO, Chris Wanstrath, will become a Microsoft technical fellow, reporting to Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie, to work on strategic software initiatives. From the blog post: "Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. "We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world's most pressing challenges." Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. Subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year. GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries. Developers will continue to be able to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice for their projects -- and will still be able to deploy their code to any operating system, any cloud and any device. The two companies, together, will "empower developers to achieve more at every stage of the development lifecycle, accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, and bring Microsoft's developer tools and services to new audiences," Microsoft said. A portion of the developer community has opposed the move, with some already leaving the platform for alternative services. Update: In a conference call with reporters, Mr. Nadella said today the company is "all in with open source," and requested people to judge the company's commitment to the open source community with its actions in the recent past, today, and in the coming future. GitHub will remain open and independent, Mr. Nadella said.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/06/04/1314247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 4.17 Released
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '18

04 Jun '18

'In his weekly message to the Linux community on Sunday, Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 4.17. The release comes a couple of months after the first release candidate, and in his message Torvalds also talks about version 5.0 of the Linux kernel. Having previously said that Linux kernel v5.0 "should be meaningless," he said that this next major numerical milestone will come around "in the not too distance future." For now, though, it's version 4.17 -- or Merciless Moray, if you prefer -- that's of interest. Linux kernel 4.17 is not a major release, and Torvalds announced it without much fanfare. "So this last week was pretty calm, even if the pattern of most of the stuff coming in on a Friday made it feel less so as the weekend approached. And while I would have liked even less changes, I really didn't get the feeling that another week would help the release in any way, so here we are, with 4.17 released."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/06/04/0913249 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Is Said to Have Agreed to Acquire Coding Site GitHub
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '18

04 Jun '18

'Microsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire GitHub Inc., the code repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. GitHub preferred selling the company to going public and chose Microsoft partially because it was impressed by Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Terms of the agreement weren't known on Sunday. GitHub was last valued at $2 billion in 2015. GitHub is an essential tool for coders. Many corporations, including Microsoft and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, use GitHub to store their corporate code and to collaborate. It's also a social network of sorts for developers. While GitHub's losses have been significant -- it lost $66 million over three quarters in 2016 -- it had revenue of $98 million in nine months of that year. On Friday, it was reported that Microsoft was in talks with GitHub about an acquisition. Now it seems like it's actually happening. Update: Our sister site, SourceForge, has weighed in. Here is a tool that will import your GitHub project to SourceForge. Update #2: Already, we are seeing plenty of backlash over this news. One user has started a petition to stop Microsoft from buying GitHub.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/06/03/2042255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Emacs 26.1 Released With New Features
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jun '18

03 Jun '18

'There's a new version of the 42-year-old libre text editor with over 2,000 built-in commands, reports LWN.net: Highlights include a built-in Lisp threading mechanism that provides some concurrency, double buffering when running under X, a redesigned flymake mode, 24-bit color support in text mode, and a systemd [user] unit file. The Free Software Foundation has released a 10,653-word description of all the new features in Emacs 26.1. Here's a couple more: * The Emacs server now has socket-launching support. This allows socket based activation, where an external process like systemd can invoke the Emacs server process upon a socket connection event and hand the socket over to Emacs... This new functionality can be disabled with the configure option '--disable-libsystemd'. * The new function 'call-shell-region' executes a command in an inferior shell with the buffer region as input. * Intercepting hotkeys on Windows 7 and later now works better. * The new user variable 'electric-quote-chars' provides a list of curved quotes for 'electric-quote-mode', allowing user to choose the types of quotes to be used.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/06/01/202205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Atari Launches Linux Gaming Box Starting at $199
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jun '18

03 Jun '18

'Attempts to establish Linux as a gaming platform have failed time and time again, with Valve's SteamOS being the latest high-profile casualty. Yet, Linux has emerged as a significant platform in the much smaller niche of retro gaming, especially on the Raspberry Pi. Atari has now re-emerged from the fog of gaming history with an Ubuntu-based Atari VCS gaming and media streaming console aimed at retro gamers. In addition to games, the Atari VCS will also offer Internet access and optional voice control. With a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the system can be used as a standard Linux computer. The catch is that the already delayed systems won't ship until July 2019... By the launch date, Atari plans to have "new and exclusive" games for download or streaming, including "reimagined classic titles from Atari and other top developers," as well as multi-player games. The Atari VCS Store will also offer video, music and other content... The hardware is not open source, and the games will be protected with HDCP. However, the Ubuntu Linux stack based on Linux kernel 4.10 is open source, and includes a "customizable Linux UX." A Linux "sandbox" will be available for developing or porting games and apps. Developers can build games using any Linux compatible gaming engine, including Unity, Unreal Engine, and Gamemaker. Atari also says that "Linux-based games from Steam and other platforms that meet Atari VCS hardware specifications should work." Atari boasts this will be their first device offering online multi-player experiences, and the device will also come pre-loaded with over 100 classic Atari games. An Indiegogo campaign this week seeking $100,000 in pre-orders has already raised over $2.2 million from 8808 backers.' -- source: https://games.slashdot.org/story/18/06/01/2057206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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CSS Is Now So Overpowered It Can Deanonymize Facebook Users
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jun '18

03 Jun '18

'Some of the recent additions to the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) web standard are so powerful that a security researcher has abused them to deanonymize visitors to a demo site and reveal their Facebook usernames, avatars, and if they liked a particular web page of Facebook. Information leaked via this attack could aid some advertisers linking IP addresses or advertising profiles to real-life persons, posing a serious threat to a user's online privacy. The leak isn't specific to Facebook but affects all sites which allow their content to be embedded on other web pages via iframes. The actual vulnerability resides in the browser implementation of a CSS feature named "mix-blend-mode," added in 2016 in the CSS3 web standard. Security researchers have proven that by overlaying multiple layers of 1x1px-sized DIV layers on top of iframes, each layer with a different blend mode, they could determine what's displayed inside it and recover the data, to which parent websites cannot regularly access. This attack works in Chrome and Firefox, but has been fixed in recent versions.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/06/02/0531202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Amscay Essagemay
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Jun '18

02 Jun '18

Received this message a few days ago: Hello, Tphe3rer was a6n e7rdrmor in ymourq bi3llicng infoormaptniido0n: C6re7dit cfard ntu9mbejt:94*****c we c5obuldnt co8nfiidrem3 you8r5 deta4ilsf with youri b9an5k u C1ovn1tdenatl Providerl: iTyunes2 Store,App Store,xiCloud,ipTunesy Ma5tc7h... Dkaltex of expmir2at6ion: 30/0h5/18 Reason of expiratikon7: Acecountk n7egver been1 updqated Accuouynt stagteusz: On hmold1,Waitincg2 for ryeinae7wablme Your ac9cmount is ond hold, Warit2ingy fboyrq r0e3nejwald,8 you have 4g8 hours or wi3ll0 be closed.h Pxlmeaaseb renbew yeouqr suzbstcnroi2ptsison witih u5s tor convtinnue uvse acll s0eqrvices In otr9dern to3 ensiur9ed yo1urp Accoiunlt achtsi8ve,a yyou mcustf nsow c4lickz the fopldl6owjing lin8k andp fyollowx thce instar5uctilovnsd providie3d: (etc, etc) I realize there must be an upper IQ limit to those who are likely to respond to such an invitation. But surely there must be a lower limit as well, to being able to even understand the message in the first place. Is the interval between them nonempty?

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Inkscape: By The Way ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Jun '18

01 Jun '18

That previous Libre Graphics World article linked to an item on Tavmjong Bah’s blog <http://tavmjong.free.fr/blog/>. “Mr Inkscape” himself has posts on the ins and outs of SVG and CSS, and tutorials on advanced features of Inkscape itself.

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SVG 2.0 Chicken-And-Egg Dilemma
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Jun '18

01 Jun '18

From <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/gradient-meshes-and-hatching-to-be…>: Essentially, we have arrived to the point where development of a major vector graphics file format for the Web is shaped by inactivity of Mozilla and Google, while Microsoft and W3C do the real work, a developer of one design tool [Inkscape] contributes a lot, but has no say in what goes into the standard, and a vendor [Adobe] of another design tool is taking a wait-and-see stance. By the way, it appears Alexandre Prokoudine has given up the battle with spammers, and has turned off all posting of new comments on his blog.

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Chrome and Firefox leaks let sites steal visitors’ Facebook names, profile pics
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jun '18

01 Jun '18

'For more than a year, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome may have leaked users’ Facebook usernames, profile pictures, and likes if the users’ browsers visited malicious websites that employed a cutting-edge hack, researchers said Thursday. The data could be extracted through what’s known as a side-channel vulnerability in the browsers’ implementation of new standards for cascading style sheets introduced in 2016. One of the new features known as the “mix-blend-mode” leaked visual content hosted on Facebook to websites that included an iframe linking to it and some clever code to capture the data. Normally, a security concept known as the same-origin policy forbids content hosted on one domain to be available to a different domain. The vulnerability was significant because it allowed hackers to bypass this bedrock principle for two of the Internet’s most widely used browsers. The leak was independently discovered by two different research teams, and it was fixed late last year in version 63 of Chrome and two weeks ago in Firefox 60. While the updated browsers no longer pose a threat to user privacy, one of the researchers who discovered the vulnerability said the increasingly powerful graphics capabilities being added in the HTML5 and CSS standards are likely to make similar hacks possible in the future.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/chrome-and-firefox-l… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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1834: The World’s First Cyberattack
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 May '18

31 May '18

How a pair of bond-trader brothers were able to covertly get information on prices days ahead of the competition, using the French Government-only telegraph network <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/05/1834_the_first_.html>.

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ProtonMail Launches Free ProtonVPN Service For Macs
by Peter Reutemann 31 May '18

31 May '18

'The creators of popular encrypted email service ProtonMail have released a free version of their ProtonVPN software for macOS. From a report: Even though the free version does not contain the full features that you would come to expect from a paid VPN service it is more than capable of obfuscating IP addresses and your location. While ProtonVPN has already released Windows and Android versions, according to Dr. Andy Yen, CEO of ProtonMail, their reason for releasing the free macOS version "is to make the world a safer place by ensuring that citizens around the world have access to an Internet free of spying and censorship. Releasing a free VPN service for macOS is another important step in that direction."' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/18/05/31/1327232 Here's the pricing/features overview: https://protonvpn.com/pricing Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Chrome 67 Released for Windows, Mac, and Linux
by Peter Reutemann 31 May '18

31 May '18

'Google released earlier today Chrome 67, the latest stable release of its web browser. According to changelogs released with Chrome 67, this version adds support for a Generic Sensors API, improves AR and VR experiences, and deprecates the HTTP-Based Public Key Pinning (HPKP) security feature. Probably the biggest change in Chrome 67 is the addition of the Generic Sensors API. As the name implies, this is an API that exposes data from device sensors to public websites. The new API is based on the Generic Sensor W3C standard. This API is meant primarily for mobile use, and in its current version, websites can use Chrome's Generic Sensors API to access data from a device's accelerometer, gyroscope, orientation and motion sensors. Another API that shipped with Chrome is the WebXR Device API. Developers can use this API to build virtual and augmented reality experiences on Chrome for mobile-based VR headsets like Google Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR, as well as desktop-hosted headsets like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/05/30/1440256 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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pop linux reviewed on distrowatch
by Ian Young 30 May '18

30 May '18

https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20180528 By a strange coincidence the Sys 76 Linux version gets a look over this week on Distrowatch about the same time as our last meeting. A range of interesting comments amidst the dross. ~ Ian Y

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Sonic and Ultrasonic Attacks Damage Hard Drives and Crash OSes
by Peter Reutemann 30 May '18

30 May '18

'Attackers can cause potentially harmful hard drive and operating system crashes by playing sounds over low-cost speakers embedded in computers or sold in stores, a team of researchers demonstrated last week. The attacks use sonic and ultrasonic sounds to disrupt magnetic HDDs as they read or write data. The researchers showed how the technique could stop some video-surveillance systems from recording live streams. Just 12 seconds of specially designed acoustic interference was all it took to cause video loss in a 720p system made by Ezviz. Sounds that lasted for 105 seconds or more caused the stock Western Digital 3.5 HDD in the device to stop recording altogether until it was rebooted. The device uses flash storage to house its firmware, but by default it uses a magnetic HDD to store the large quantities of video it records. The attack used a speaker hanging from a ceiling that rested about four inches above the surveillance system's HDD. The researchers didn't remove the casing or otherwise tamper with the surveillance system. The technique was also able to disrupt HDDs in desktop and laptop computers running both Windows and Linux. In some cases, it even required a reboot before the PCs worked properly. ' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/18/05/30/0349202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Windows 10 Spring Update Improves Linux On WSL With Unix Sockets and More
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '18

29 May '18

'Windows 10 build 1803 has come out this month, but with some problems. AnandTech has a deep-dive with the review examing many new features including the much better support for Linux. WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) now has native Curt and Tar from the command prompt as well as a utility to convert Unix to Windows pathnames called WSLpath.exe which is documented here. In addition it was mentioned on Slashdot in the past about OpenSSH being ported natively to Win32 in certain early builds. It now seems the reason was for Linux interoperability with this Spring Update 2. Unix sockets mean you can run Kali Linux on Windows 10 for penetration testing or run an Apache server in the background with full Linux networking support. Deemons now run in the background even with the command prompt closed. [...]' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/05/29/0244210 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Satya Nadella: “I Believe Right Now Microsoft Is Probably On The Right Side Of History”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 May '18

27 May '18

Interview of the Microsoft boss by the Daily Telegraph <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=120597…>: ... Nadella's four years in charge cannot be described as anything but a success. Under his watch, its share price has increased by 170 per cent, finally overtaking the levels from the peak of the dotcom boom. Except that share price seems a somewhat short-sighted way of measuring a company’s success. Look at HP. "I always make this case, which is if it was not for Microsoft's openness, the web wouldn't have happened. I was talking to [web creator Sir] Tim Berners-Lee yesterday and I sort of said: 'Think about the current ecosystems and how closed and how walled gardened and riddled with all kinds of ways they've rigged it, [compared] to where we were.' Talk about rewriting history. The Web was growing by leaps and bounds long before Microsoft even noticed it (remember how the first edition of Bill Gates’ book “The Road Ahead” didn’t even mention it?). Netscape was the leader and de-facto setter of standards, until Microsoft belatedly entered the race, and took over by giving away their product for free. Then we had the long period of stagnation under Internet Explorer 6, until Firefox came in to jolt them out of their complacency, followed by Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome. So to say that “Microsoft’s openness” had anything to do with it is just shamelessly false.

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There Are Real Reasons For Linux To Replace ifconfig, netstat and Other Classic Tools
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '18

27 May '18

'One of the ongoing system administration controversies in Linux is that there is an ongoing effort to obsolete the old, cross-Unix standard network administration and diagnosis commands of ifconfig, netstat and the like and replace them with fresh new Linux specific things like ss and the ip suite. Old sysadmins are generally grumpy about this; they consider it yet another sign of Linux's 'not invented here' attitude that sees Linux breaking from well-established Unix norms to go its own way. Although I'm an old sysadmin myself, I don't have this reaction. Instead, I think that it might be both sensible and honest for Linux to go off in this direction. There are two reasons for this, one ostensible and one subtle. The ostensible surface issue is that the current code for netstat, ifconfig, and so on operates in an inefficient way. Per various people, netstat et al operate by reading various files in /proc, and doing this is not the most efficient thing in the world (either on the kernel side or on netstat's side). You won't notice this on a small system, but apparently there are real impacts on large ones. Modern commands like ss and ip use Linux's netlink sockets, which are much more efficient. In theory netstat, ifconfig, and company could be rewritten to use netlink too; in practice this doesn't seem to have happened and there may be political issues involving different groups of developers with different opinions on which way to go. (Netstat and ifconfig are part of net-tools, while ss and ip are part of iproute2.) However, the deeper issue is the interface that netstat, ifconfig, and company present to users. In practice, these commands are caught between two masters. On the one hand, the information the tools present and the questions they let us ask are deeply intertwined with how the kernel itself does networking, and in general the tools are very much supposed to report the kernel's reality. On the other hand, the users expect netstat, ifconfig and so on to have their traditional interface (in terms of output, command line arguments, and so on); any number of scripts and tools fish things out of ifconfig output, for example. As the Linux kernel has changed how it does networking, this has presented things like ifconfig with a deep conflict; their traditional output is no longer necessarily an accurate representation of reality.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/05/27/1448211 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Mystery Donor Pledges $1 Million To The GNOME Foundation
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '18

27 May '18

'This week, The GNOME Foundation made a shocking revelation: a mystery donor has pledged $1 million dollars. We don't know who is promising the money -- it could be a rich man or woman, but more likely -- and this is pure speculation -- it is probably a company that benefits from GNOME, such as Red Hat or Canonical. "An anonymous donor has pledged to donate up to $1,000,000 over the next two years, some of which will be matching funds. The GNOME Foundation is grateful for this donation and plans on using these funds to increase staff to streamline operations and to grow its support of the GNOME Project and the surrounding ecosystem. While the GNOME Foundation has maintained its position as a proponent of the GNOME Project, growth has been limited. With these funds, the GNOME Foundation will be able to expand and lead in the free software space," says The GNOME Foundation.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/05/27/1653225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New speculative-execution vulnerability strikes AMD, ARM, and Intel
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '18

22 May '18

'A new attack that uses processors' speculative-execution capabilities to leak data, named Speculative Store Bypass (SSB), has been published after being independently discovered by Microsoft's Security Response Center and Google Project Zero. Processors from Intel and AMD, along with some of those using ARM's designs, are all affected.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/05/new-speculative-execution-vulnerabi… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '18

22 May '18

Hi everyone We have a meeting next Monday: 'Carsten will give a short introduction to their FOSS project "DiLer" which is a LMS and school administration software and how they made it a business model. Some details are available at https://digitale-lernumgebung.de in English. Lawrence D'Oliveiro will show off Pop!_OS, the Ubuntu-derivative that System76 uses on their computers that they sell (https://system76.com/pop)' More details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/246737153 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ask Slashdot: Some Good Linux Desktop Option For Kids?
by Peter Reutemann 17 May '18

17 May '18

'I'm looking to re-purpose some of the older hardware that I've held onto to create something of a starter machine for my kids (both aged below 10). At this point it's still just a few shortcut icons I can setup on the desktop for them, primarily to web tools/sites they use, but I'd like some flexibility; everything I've read suggests options that haven't had any activity since 2015. Is there an option out there or is this just a custom job' -- source: https://ask.slashdot.org/story/18/05/17/1425203 See the discussion in the comments of that article. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu - Upgrading to 18.04
by Ian Stewart 17 May '18

17 May '18

Hi, Ubuntu users are probably aware that about three weeks ago version 18.04.0 was released. This is a Long Term Support (LTS) release. If you are running version 17.10, and your "Software & Updates" --> "Updates" --> "Notify me of a new Ubuntu version:" is set to either "For any new version" or "For long-term support versions", then you will probably have received a GUI pop-up screen asking you if you wanted to do an on-line upgrade to 18.04. I had no problems when performing the on-line upgrade with Ubuntu/Mate 17.10 to 18.04. (Which is better that when I did the 17.04 to 17.10, where I struck an application dependency problem.) I also have a 16.04 LTS Ubuntu/Mate laptop, and I was expecting a pop-up and to get prompted to do the software upgrade to 18.04 LTS, but all I could get was a message to say my 16.04 version was up-to-date. In reading this askubuntu posting: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1028624/not-able-to-upgrade-from-16-04-lts-… ...I found someone has posted the following comment: Upgrades from LTS releases are scheduled after the first patch - 18.04.1 which is usually a month after the first release. They need to make sure everything goes smoothly and then the software manager will allow it. If you're anxious, which based on my experience you shouldn't be cause there are probably tons of bugs, you can still force that upgrade, but that's not recommended. sudo do-release-upgrade -d ...despite it not being recommended I did the "sudo do-release-upgrade -d" and it upgraded my laptop from 16.04 to 18.04, and it seems to be booting and working fine. However, if you read the posting, then be aware that not everyone has had the same level of success: "I did a sudo do-release-upgrade -d on an ASUS SonicMaster with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on it. After the upgrade, I restarted the machine, and the computer couldn't boot due to some infinite loops while showing messages regarding PCI bus." cheers, Ian.

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Fedora-Based Linux Distro Korora Halts Development
by Peter Reutemann 16 May '18

16 May '18

'Korora, a Fedora-based Linux distro, halted its development this month, BetaNews' Brian Fagioli spotted Wednesday. The announcement would irk many, as Korora consistently received positive feedback from critics and users alike. News outlet ZDNet once described Korora as "Fedora++", while Slashdot readers, too, spoke highly of the distro. At the same time, the announcement should come as little surprise to anyone who has been tracking Korora's work. In a blog post, Korora team wrote: Korora for the forseeable future is not going to be able to march in cadence with the Fedora releases. In addition to that, for the immediate future there will be no updates to the Korora distribution. Our team is infinitesimal (currently 1 developer and 2 community managers) compared to many other distributions, we don't have the luxury of being able to dedicate the amount of time we would like to spend on the project and still satisfy our real life obligations. So we are taking a little sabbatical to avoid complete burn out and rejuvenate ourselves and our passion for Korora/Fedora and wider open source efforts. The team had expressed similar concerns earlier this year: For the past few years Korora has released a new version in line with each Fedora version. That means that approximately twice a year we prepare, test and create 5 different ISO versions. This is as well as, among other things, developing new projects, supporting existing releases and planning the future versions. As each team member has different skills some tasks, such as development, can only be done by one person. All this is done in our spare time along side our job, family and personal responsibilities. For a very small team, currently 3 people plus the occasional input from others, this is a lot of work. It means that often Korora has to take a back seat when real life intrudes. This isn't the first time Korora had to abruptly pause its development. In 2007, Christopher Smart, who kickstarted Korora (at the time based on Gentoo Linux), had discontinued the project -- only to revive it three years later.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/05/16/1352245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu - Upgrading to 18.04
by rowan schischka 16 May '18

16 May '18

My Ubuntu 18.04 upgrade story from 17.10, originally 16.04. I had to re-install xserver-xorg-input-all to get my mouse and keyboard working I also had to reinstall gnome, for some reason only Unity desktop was installed. Other than that it is working fine.

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It Doesn't Take a Genius to See That Microsoft Still Attacks GNU/Linux With Patents to Make Billions of Dollars in 'Protection' Money
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '18

14 May '18

'Intellectual Ventures, Finjan, RPX, and other Microsoft-connected trolls cannot be countered by LOT Network and the likes of it (notably OIN); Microsoft continues to shrewdly distribute patents to trolls, offering 'protection' from them (for a fee) and pressuring OEMs to bundle Microsoft 'apps' or risk retaliatory patent lawsuits' -- source: http://techrights.org/2018/05/14/microsoft-still-attacks-with-patents/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Attention PGP Users: New Vulnerabilities Require You To Take Action Now
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '18

14 May '18

'A group of European security researchers have released a warning about a set of vulnerabilities affecting users of PGP and S/MIME. From a report: EFF has been in communication with the research team, and can confirm that these vulnerabilities pose an immediate risk to those using these tools for email communication, including the potential exposure of the contents of past messages. The full details will be published in a paper on Tuesday at 07:00 AM UTC (3:00 AM Eastern, midnight Pacific). In order to reduce the short-term risk, we and the researchers have agreed to warn the wider PGP user community in advance of its full publication. Our advice, which mirrors that of the researchers, is to immediately disable and/or uninstall tools that automatically decrypt PGP-encrypted email. Until the flaws described in the paper are more widely understood and fixed, users should arrange for the use of alternative end-to-end secure channels, such as Signal, and temporarily stop sending and especially reading PGP-encrypted email.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/05/14/149222 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Malware Found In the Ubuntu Snap Store
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '18

14 May '18

'Oh, snap! Just because some packages are available to install directly from the Ubuntu Software Center doesn't make them safe. This is proved by a recent discovery of malware in some snap packages from the Ubuntu Snaps Store. At least two of the snap packages, 2048buntu and hextris, uploaded to the Ubuntu Snaps Store by user Nicolas Tomb, contained malware. All packages by Nicolas have since been removed from the Ubuntu Snaps Store, "pending further investigations." The report comes from a bug which mentions that the 2048buntu snap package (and other packages by Nicolas Tomb) contains a hidden cryptocurrency miner inside. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/05/12/2140252 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Same IP Address For Wired And Wireless Connections
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 May '18

10 May '18

I did something I thought was a little dodgy in my DHCP server config, namely I assigned the same IP address to both the Ethernet and Wi-Fi MAC addresses for my laptop. I figured this was OK so long as I turned one off before turning on the other. Today, I tried breaking that rule. I started a large rsync transfer over wi-fi, decided it was too slow, and plugged in an Ethernet cable. And it worked! After a few seconds, I was able to turn off the wi-fi, and the transfer continued without a hiccup. Has anyone else tried this?

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A first look at Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop
by Peter Reutemann 10 May '18

10 May '18

'Last week, Canonical released Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (codenamed "Bionic Beaver"), the latest long-term support version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Ars is working on a full review of the release, but I wanted to share some first impressions of the desktop, which is a major advance over the last LTS version.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/04/bionic-beaver-a-firs… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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System76 Oryx Pro Linux laptop is now thinner and faster, putting Apple MacBook Pro to shame
by Peter Reutemann 10 May '18

10 May '18

'Last week, System76 started to share details about its refreshed Linux-powered Oryx Pro laptop. It would be thinner and more powerful, while adding twice the battery life of its predecessor. Unfortunately, we did not yet know exactly what the laptop looked like. Today, we finally have official images. This new Oryx Pro is quite breathtaking, as it is a true Pro machine -- with the USB Type-A, Ethernet, and HDMI ports you expect -- while being just 19mm thin. It has the horsepower that power-users need, thanks to its 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-Series GPU. Hey, Apple, this is what a "Pro" laptop should be...' -- source: https://betanews.com/2018/05/09/system76-oryx-pro-linux-laptop/ The video is fun to watch, too. :-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Multiple OS Vendors Release Security Patches After Misinterpreting Intel Docs
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '18

09 May '18

'Almost all major OS vendors released security patches yesterday after a researcher discovered that some OS makers have misinterpreted an Intel CPU debug feature and left their systems open to attacks. From a report: The vulnerability is in how the OS vendors implemented a hardware debug mechanism for Intel x86-64 architectures -- and more specifically the MOV SS and POP SS instructions. "In certain circumstances after the use of certain Intel x86-64 architecture instructions, a debug exception pointing to data in a lower ring (for most operating systems, the kernel Ring 0 level) is made available to operating system components running in Ring 3," the CERT/CC team explained in an advisory published yesterday. Explained in layman's terms, "this may allow an attacker to utilize operating system APIs to gain access to sensitive memory information or control low-level operating system functions." Operating systems that mishandle this debug exception and had their systems open to attacks include Apple, Microsoft, FreeBSD, Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and other Linux distros based on the Linux Kernel -- which is also affected.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/05/09/1724220 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Firefox Moves Browsers Into Post-Password Future With WebAuthn Tech
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '18

09 May '18

'Today, Mozilla released Firefox 60 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, and with it arrives Web Authentication API for desktop browsers. From a report: Firefox 60 supports technology called Web Authentication, or WebAuthn for short, that can be used to grant you access to websites with a physical authentication device like a YubiKey dongle, biometric identity proof using an Android phone's fingerprint reader or the iPhone's Face ID, and some other alternatives to passwords. Passwords are a particular problem on the web. Fake websites can coax you to type in credentials that then can be used to steal money from your bank account or snoop your email -- a problem called phishing. Even if you pick hard-to-guess passwords, never reuse them on multiple sites and always remember them, passwords still aren't that strong a foundation for security these days. We're still a long way away from a post-password future, but WebAuthn is an important step, if nothing else, in making sites more secure.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/05/09/1932232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Cloudflare Embraces ARM As Qualcomm Might Leave
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 May '18

09 May '18

Seems like Qualcomm might be giving up <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/08/arm_server_cpus_why_are_they_going_…> on trying to offer ARM servers for the data centre. But in that same article, one of the comments linked to this item <http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/design/cloudflare-bets-arm-servers-it-ex…> which says that Cloudflare is going all in on using ARM servers to expand its CDN worldwide. I suppose content delivery is a market segment where sheer CPU grunt is less important than I/O throughput, power efficiency etc.

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Chrome 66 Arrives With Autoplaying Content Blocked By Default
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '18

09 May '18

'Google today launched Chrome 66 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The desktop release includes autoplaying content muted by default, security improvements, and new developer features. You can update to the latest version now using the browser's built-in silent updater or download it directly from google.com/chrome. In our tests, autoplaying content that is muted still plays automatically. Autoplaying content with sound, whether it has visible controls or not, and whether it is set to play on loop or not, simply does not start playing. Note that this is all encompassing -- even autoplaying content you are expecting or is the main focus of the page does not play. YouTube videos, for example, no longer start playing automatically. And in case that's not enough, or if a page somehow circumvents the autoplaying block, you can still mute whole websites.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/04/18/0410202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Gimp 2.10.0 release
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '18

09 May '18

'The long-awaited GIMP 2.10.0 is finally here! This is a huge release, which contains the result of 6 long years of work (GIMP 2.8 was released almost exactly 6 years ago!) by a small but dedicated core of contributors. The Changes in short: - Image processing nearly fully ported to GEGL, allowing high bit depth processing, multi-threaded and hardware accelerated pixel processing, and more. - Color management is a core feature now, most widgets and preview areas are color-managed. - Many improved tools, and several new and exciting tools, such as the Warp transform, the Unified transform and the Handle transform tools. - On-canvas preview for all filters ported to GEGL. - Improved digital painting with canvas rotation and flipping, symmetry painting, MyPaint brush support… - Support for several new image formats added (OpenEXR, RGBE, WebP, HGT), as well as improved support for many existing formats (in particular more robust PSD importing). - Metadata viewing and editing for Exif, XMP, IPTC, and DICOM. - Basic HiDPI support: automatic or user-selected icon size. - New themes for GIMP (Light, Gray, Dark, and System) and new symbolic icons meant to somewhat dim the environment and shift the focus towards content (former theme and color icons are still available in Preferences). - And more, better, more, and even more awesome!' -- source: https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/04/27/gimp-2-10-0-released/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Drupal Sites Fall Victims To Cryptojacking Campaigns
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '18

08 May '18

'After the publication of two severe security flaws in the Drupal CMS, cybercrime groups have turned their sights on this web technology in the hopes of finding new ground to plant malware on servers and make money through illegal cryptocurrency mining. [...] Now, as time passes by, more malware campaigns targeting Drupal sites are getting off the ground -- and two of them have been spotted the past week. The most recent of these campaigns has been discovered by US security researcher Troy Mursch. The researcher discovered a group that gained access to Drupal sites and hid a version of the Coinhive in-browser cryptocurrency miner inside a file named "jquery [dot] once [dot] js?v=1.2," loaded on each of the compromised sites. Mursch initially tracked down the infected files to over 100,000 domains, then narrowed down the results to 80,000 domains, and finally confirmed the infection on at least 348 sites where the in-browsing mining operation was actually taking place.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/05/07/1636258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu Considering an HTML5-Based OS Installer
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '18

08 May '18

'Ubuntu's Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life, Mark Shuttleworth, is considering backing a new Ubuntu installer that would be using HTML5 via the Electron Framework. This theoretical installer would re-use the company's existing HTML5 code for managing MAAS installations, integrate with Electron, and also better support their Snap packaging format, according to his proposal. What could possibly go wrong with an HTML5/Electron operating system installer? Mark also announced that Ubuntu 18.10 is codenamed the Cosmic Cuttlefish.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/05/08/1712221 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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You Can Now Run Linux Apps On Chrome OS
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '18

08 May '18

'Google today announced Chrome OS is getting Linux support. "As a result, Chromebooks will soon be able to run Linux apps and execute Linux commands," reports VentureBeat. "A preview of Linux on the Pixelbook will be released first, with support for more devices coming soon." From the report: "Just go to wherever you normally get those apps, whether it's on the websites or through apt-get in the Linux terminal, and seamless get those apps like any other Linux distribution," Chrome OS director of product management Kan Liu told VentureBeat. Support for Linux apps means developers will finally be able to use a Google device to develop for Google's platforms, rather than having to depend on Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. And because Chrome OS doesn't just run Chrome OS-specific apps anymore, developers will be able to create, test, and run any Android or web app for phones, tablets, and laptops all on their Chromebooks. Without having to switch devices, you can run your favorite IDE -- as long as there is a Debian Linux version (for the curious, Google is specifically using Debian Stretch here -- code in your favorite language and launch projects to Google Cloud with the command line. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/05/08/216240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Meeting topics?
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '18

08 May '18

Hi everyone Any ideas for next week's meeting? Having a go at System76's Pop!_OS? Other ideas? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz

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Eight New Meltdown-Like Flaws Found
by Peter Reutemann 06 May '18

06 May '18

'Researchers have found eight new flaws in computer central processing units that resemble the Meltdown and Spectre bugs revealed in January, a German computing magazine reported on Thursday. The magazine, called c't, said it was aware of Intel Corp's plans to patch the flaws, adding that some chips designed by ARM Holdings, a unit of Japan's Softbank, might be affected, while work was continuing to establish whether Advanced Micro Devices chips were vulnerable... The magazine said Google Project Zero, one of the original collective that exposed Meltdown and Spectre in January, had found one of the flaws and that a 90-day embargo on going public with its findings would end on May 7... "Considering what we have seen with Meltdown and Spectre, we should expect a long and painful cycle of updates, possibly even performance or stability issues," said Yuriy Bulygin, chief executive officer of hardware security firm Eclypsium and a former Intel security researcher. "Hopefully, Meltdown and Spectre led to improvements to the complicated process of patching hardware." Neowin now reports that Intel "is expected to release microcode updates in two waves; one in May, and the other in August."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/05/05/1730203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Drive-by Rowhammer attack uses GPU to compromise an Android phone
by Peter Reutemann 03 May '18

03 May '18

'Over the past few years, there has been a steady evolution in Rowhammer, the once largely theoretical attack that exploits physical defects in memory chips to tamper with the security of the devices they run on. On Thursday, researchers are unveiling the most practical demonstration yet of Rowhammer's power and reach: an exploit that remotely executes malicious code on Android phones by harnessing their graphical processors.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/drive-by-rowhammer-a… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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More Dead Microsoft Technologies
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 May '18

01 May '18

A roundup <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/01/windows_10_april_update_casualties/> of what’s gone in the latest Windows 10 update mentions that HomeGroup, Microsoft’s attempt to let a bunch of machines share files and printers on an ad-hoc basis, has now gone the way of Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center. Also it looks like XPS, Microsoft’s NIH alternative to PDF, has also bitten the dust. And the Windows Help Viewer may be next...

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Fedora 28 Featuring GNOME 3.28 Released
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '18

01 May '18

'Fedora 28 has many new features, but one in particular will surely excite desktop/workstation users -- GNOME 3.28, which introduces Thunderbolt 3 support and improved laptop battery life. Fedora has long used GNOME as the default desktop environment, and best of all, it is mostly a stock affair -- no silly tweaks enabled by default. In other words, you get a very pure GNOME experience, making Fedora Workstation the preferred OS for many hardcore fans of the DE. "GNOME 3.28 adds the capability to favorite files, folders, and contacts for easier organization and access. Additionally, the new application Usage is included to help users more easily diagnose and resolve performance and capacity issues," says The Fedora Project.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/05/01/1727233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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USB 3.2 Work Is On The Way For The Linux 4.18 Kernel: Report
by Peter Reutemann 30 Apr '18

30 Apr '18

'USB 3.2 was announced last summer as an incremental update to the USB standard to double the bandwidth for existing USB Type-C cables. We haven't seen much in the way of USB 3.2 mentions in the Linux kernel yet but then again we haven't really seen USB 3.2 devices yet. USB 3.2 brings a multi-lane operation mode for hosts and devices using existing Type-C cables as well as a minor update to the USB hub specification. USB 3.2 allows for new 10 Gbit/s and 20 Gbit/s rates using two lanes, USB 3.2 Gen 1x2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, respectively. It looks like kernel developers are now working on getting their USB 3.2 Linux support in order. We were tipped off that as of last week there are some USB 3.2 patches queued in the usb-next tree maintained by Greg Kroah-Hartman's.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/04/30/1558201 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Sinclair ZX Spectrum Designer Rick Dickinson Succumbs To Cancer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Rick Dickinson, the designer for several machines sold by Sinclair in the 1980s, has died <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/26/rick_dickinson_dies/>. More recently, he was involved in the campaign to create the “ZX Spectrum Next” machine. Commenters have offered up some useful links: his Flickr gallery <https://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086(a)N02/albums> with some peeks at concept renders, and this item <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAwHIcdidzI> from 2003 where he talks about his designs for Sinclair.

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Microsoft Quarterly Report
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Just some items I found notable from here <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/even-windows-revenue-is-up-in-micro…>: * Office 365 is up, traditional MS Office is down. * Corporate sales of Windows are up, while consumer sales are down (“below the general decline of the PC market”). In each case, the former is growing faster than the latter is declining, so overall business is up.

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Linux At The Leading Edge Of Enterprise-Level Storage
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

First of all, some background (as I understand it): * “NVMe” is a standard for accessing storage (normally flash rather than hard drives) via a PCI-E bus <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express>. * “NVME-oF” (“NVMe over Fabrics”) (mentioned in the above article) is a further spec that allows one node to access storage attached to another node. Sounds like NBD, really <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_block_device>, though the term “RDMA” (“Remote Direct Memory Access”) gets tossed around. So, this article <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/26/nvme_fabric_over_fibre_channel/> says things like NVME-oF “has to be implemented across network or fabric and, so far, Ethernet, with ROCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet), is the favoured one”, though other lower-layer protocols also work. In particular, the writer is interviewing an industry guru about the prospects for FC-NVMe, which uses Fibre Channel as the transport. A couple of quotes caught my eye: Since the low-level driver isn't a part of the OS, like NVMe-oF, but rather supplied by the HBA vendor (Emulex or QLogic), the deployment for OSes outside the Linux model should be more agile... You must run a recent version of Linux; no other OSes have NVMe-oF drivers available (yet). In other words, NVME-oF is pretty much Linux-only at the moment. But it would be hardware-independent, which should mean you can mix and match storage from different vendors. Unlike FC-NVMe, where the “HBA vendor” needs to supply hardware-specific drivers. In other, other words, NVME-oF works only on Linux, but makes you “hardware-agile”, while FC-NVMe is hardware-specific but should (hopefully) be “OS-agile”. Which kind of “agility” will turn out to be more important, I wonder?

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Drupal Warns of New Remote-Code Bug, the Second in Four Weeks
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

'For the second time in a month, websites that use the Drupal content management system are confronted with a stark choice: install a critical update or risk having your servers infected with ransomware or other nasties. From a report: Maintainers of the open-source CMS built on the PHP programming language released an update patching critical remote-code vulnerability on Wednesday. The bug, formally indexed as CVE-2018-7602, exists within multiple subsystems of Drupal 7.x and 8.x. Drupal maintainers didn't provide details on how the vulnerability can be exploited other than to say attacks work remotely. The maintainers rated the vulnerability "critical" and urged websites to patch it as soon as possible.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/04/25/1956214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Was Our Census Data Secure?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Apr '18

25 Apr '18

According to this article <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12038826>, when we were filling out our census data online last month, it was actually going through the servers of a company called Incapsula, which was scanning the unencrypted data for malware. Since the company is based in the US, this naturally raises concerns about US Government access to the data of NZ residents and citizens. On the one hand, the article says “this is not a data breach”, but on the other hand Adding to the researchers' concerns, Stats NZ's digital key that is required to decrypt the data sent over TLS secured connections is now distributed across Incapsula's global network, Teague and Culnane said. "Our non-exhaustive search found that servers in Australia, the US, as well as New Zealand, all had the Stats NZ key," they added. Digital TLS keys are supposed to be protected and should only be kept on the servers that they relate to, the researchers said. If keys are leaked, attackers could use them to impersonate Stats NZ servers. and further down they use the phrase “clear security flaw”. Stats NZ insists the company is trusted and “Goverment-approved”. Given it’s also protecting the GCSB, I guess that is already very literally true.

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