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Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

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Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#41

Post by Root_Denied »

bellowsgulch wrote: post #10
cbarnes99 wrote: post #7

It really pisses me off that responsible disclosure timelines are being ignored.

if you don't already consider responsible disclosure a quaint idea, you may want to grow warm on it the idea that it exists at all is more or less a gentleman's agreement in the engineering world anyway

Less a gentleman's agreement and more of a question of economic incentives going away. Companies aren't paying out bounties at the rates they used to (possibly because they've realized there's little financial incentive to do so for most findings) and simultaneously they're being inundated with AI slop findings that somehow have to still be triaged and evaluated.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#42

Post by krupan »

cperciva wrote: post #11

Alternatively, switch to an operating system like FreeBSD which doesn't take a YOLO approach to security. Security fixes don't just get tossed into the FreeBSD kernel without coordination; they go through the FreeBSD security team and we have binary updates (via FreeBSD Update, and via pkgbase for 15.0-RELEASE) published within a couple minutes of the patches hitting the src tree. (Roughly speaking, a few seconds for…

If you are switching to a BSD for security reasons, why FreeBSD? Isn't OpenBSD the super secure one? Sorry, it's been a while since I've looked at those projects

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#43

Post by landr0id »

cperciva wrote: post #11

Alternatively, switch to an operating system like FreeBSD which doesn't take a YOLO approach to security. Security fixes don't just get tossed into the FreeBSD kernel without coordination; they go through the FreeBSD security team and we have binary updates (via FreeBSD Update, and via pkgbase for 15.0-RELEASE) published within a couple minutes of the patches hitting the src tree. (Roughly speaking, a few seconds for…

FreeBSD didn’t have user land ASLR until 2019 and, amongst other mitigations, still doesn’t have kASLR. It’s not a serious operating system for people who care about security. If you want FreeBSD and security take Shawn Webb’s HardenedBSD.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#44

Post by himata4113 »

q3k wrote: post #39

You don't need a kernel LPE to root a Linux developer machine. Just alias sudo to sudo-but-also-keep-password-and-execute-a-payload in ~/.bashrc and wait up to 24 hours. Maybe also simulate some breakage by intercepting other commands and force the user to run 'sudo systemctl' or something sooner rather than later.

this, this is something I don't understand there are a billion ways to gain root once you control the user that regulary uses sudo.

this is only scary for rootless containers as it skips an isolation layer, but we've started shipping distroless containers which are not vulnerable to this due to the fact that they lack priviledge escalation commands such as su or sudo.

never trust software to begin with, sandbox everything you can and don't run it on your machine to begin with if possible.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#45

Post by ayuhito »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #25

I do a bit wonder what happens as standard practice becomes to lag more and more and more. Who is there left that's looking, that'd finding out?

I think there’s already a big market of supply chain security companies that are proactively scanning dependencies for this sort of thing.

They’re always racing to be the first one to write an article about a case.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#46

Post by kelnos »

landr0id wrote: post #43
cperciva wrote: post #11

Alternatively, switch to an operating system like FreeBSD which doesn't take a YOLO approach to security. Security fixes don't just get tossed into the FreeBSD kernel without coordination; they go through the FreeBSD security team and we have binary updates (via FreeBSD Update, and via pkgbase for 15.0-RELEASE) published within a couple minutes of the patches hitting the src tree. (Roughly speaking, a few seconds for…

FreeBSD didn’t have user land ASLR until 2019 and, amongst other mitigations, still doesn’t have kASLR. It’s not a serious operating system for people who care about security. If you want FreeBSD and security take Shawn Webb’s HardenedBSD.

Last I read, ASLR is a good thing to have, but overall is usually not difficult to defeat. It's a speed bump, not a brick wall.

I don't think it's reasonable to say that an OS that lacks it isn't "serious" about security.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#47

Post by JoshTriplett »

cperciva wrote: post #30
eahm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also funny they never show Debian in those tests/videos.

Debian is probably the best of all the Linuxes, but still suffers from split-brain: If patches are sent upstream first, Debian can't start digesting them until they're already public. With FreeBSD there's never any question of "who should this get reported to".

> Debian can't start digesting them until they're already public

Not sure what you mean by this. Debian is able to handle coordinated disclosures (when they're actually coordinated), and get embargoed security updates out rapidly without breaking the embargo.

Is there some other aspect of this that you're referencing?

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#48

Post by fny »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #38

"Wait a week to install software" does not work. Just a few months ago a massive exploit hit the web, which was a timed attack which sat for more than a month before executing. If everyone starts waiting a week, their exploits will wait 2 weeks. Cyber criminals do not need to exploit you immediately, they just need to exploit you. (It also doesn't change a large range of vuln classes like typosquatting)

This is why cooldowns have space for patches.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#49

Post by circularfoyers »

mistyvales wrote: post #20

Fedora upgrades have usually been great, but I jumped the gun on Fedora 44. Sound completely dead with no Pipewire service available. ALSA not responding. Firefox dies immediately if I open a new tab or right click anywhere on the browser itself (inlcuding nightly builds). QEMU refuses to load. Maybe something got completely f'd in the upgrade process.. I never had an issue before having upgraded from Fedora 38 all t…

If this is still the same install that you've been using since 38, you might find a clean install resolves some issues (whether or not your upgrade got botched). Also helps me get rid of software I installed that I don't use anymore, which I feel is relevant to this article. But part of why I love Silverblue so much is I don't have to worry about upgrades getting botched and fwiw as well, I haven't noticed any of those bugs on 44 across several very different machines.

Re: Maybe you shouldn't install new software for a bit

#50

Post by tom_alexander »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #38

"Wait a week to install software" does not work. Just a few months ago a massive exploit hit the web, which was a timed attack which sat for more than a month before executing. If everyone starts waiting a week, their exploits will wait 2 weeks. Cyber criminals do not need to exploit you immediately, they just need to exploit you. (It also doesn't change a large range of vuln classes like typosquatting)

I think the author was suggesting "wait a week" as a one-time wait for fixes to be written and patches distributed for these specific prematurely-disclosed vulnerabilities, not an on-going suggestion for delaying all updates. But otherwise I agree with you.
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