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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Is xz 5.6.1-3+ still dangerous? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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When the xz backdoor was discovered, I quickly uninstalled my Arch based setup with an infected version of the software and switched to a distro that shipped an older version (5.5 or 5.4 or something). I found an article which said that in 5.6.1-3 the backdoor was "fixed" by just not letting the malware part communicating with the vulnerable ssh related stuff and the actual malware is still there? (I didn't understand 80% of the technical terms and abbreviations in it ok?) Like it still sounds kinda dangerous to me, especially since many experts say that we don't know the other ways this malware can use (except for the ssh supply chain) yet. Is it true? Should I stick with the new distro for now or can I absolutely safely switch back and finally say that I use Arch btw again?

P. S. I do know that nothing is completely safe. Here I'm asking just about xz and libxzlk or whatever the name of that library is

EDIT: 69 upvotes. Nice

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is the reason I keep an OpenBSD system around. Maybe it's a false sense of security, but I feel that they are pickier about the base system at least.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have a question. Does BSD support any universal package formats?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Afaik, no. Worth mentioning is that the fundamental design of the major BSDs is to clearly separate the core OS from third party applications. But as far as just being able to use Flathub or similar, I don't think so. If any BSD has experimented in that direction my bet would be FreeBSD.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I can't use it then. I need some apps that are definitely not available natively on BSD. Thank you for the information though

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No worries :) Just out of curiosity, which software?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

Unfortunately telling about the software will greatly simplify my identification so I can't do it