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Removal of Deepin Desktop from openSUSE due to Packaging Policy Violation

Table of Contents

1) Introduction

The Deepin desktop environment (DDE) is part of the Deepin Linux distribution. It focuses on usability, a polished graphical presentation and support for the Chinese language. It is also available on a number of other Linux distributions, openSUSE among them.

Recently we noticed a policy violation in the packaging of the Deepin desktop environment in openSUSE. To get around security review requirements, our Deepin community packager implemented a workaround which bypasses the regular RPM packaging mechanisms to install restricted assets.

As a result of this violation, and in the light of the difficult history we have with Deepin code reviews, we will be removing the Deepin Desktop packages from openSUSE distributions for the time being.

In this blog post we will look at the exact nature of the policy violation, the review history of Deepin components in openSUSE and the conclusions we draw from all of this. Finally, we will give an outlook on how this situation could be resolved, and how users of openSUSE can continue to opt-in to use Deepin in the future.

2) Bypass of the openSUSE Packaging Policy via a “License Agreement” Dialog

The SUSE security team enforces a number of packaging restrictions for openSUSE distributions. Among others, the installation of D-Bus system service configuration files and Polkit policies requires a review by us. When we are satisfied with a package’s security, then we whitelist the respective components. From there on, the package can be submitted to the openSUSE:Factory project in the Open Build Service, which is the base for the openSUSE Tumbleweed rolling release distribution.

For a large software suite like Deepin, which contains a significant number of D-Bus services, this can be a difficult initial hurdle to overcome. We have been in contact with the openSUSE Deepin packager ever since 2017, and have whitelisted various Deepin D-Bus components in the meantime. A number of remaining Deepin review bugs have seen little progress in recent years, however, because the issues we pointed out have not been addressed properly.

Perhaps tired of waiting, the packager decided to try a different avenue to get the remaining Deepin components into openSUSE skirting the review requirements. In January 2025, during routine reviews, we stumbled upon the deepin-feature-enable package, which was introduced on 2021-04-27 without consulting us or even informing us. This innocently named package implements a “license agreement dialog” which basically explains that the SUSE security team has doubts about the security of Deepin, but to properly use Deepin, certain components need to be installed anyway. Thus, if the user does not care about security then “the license” should be accepted. If the user accepts, the missing D-Bus configuration files and Polkit policies are automatically extracted into system directories from tarballs found in the deepin-daemon-dbus and deepin-daemon-polkit packages. The license text also contains a hint suggesting to manually install the deepin-file-manager-dbus and deepin-file-manager-polkit packages and run a script to sideload further configuration files that are needed for the Deepin file manager D-Bus component to work.

The 'license agreement' dialog presented by deepin-feature-enable
The "license agreement" dialog presented by deepin-feature-enable.

For end users, this effectively means that typing “y” once during the installation of the Deepin pattern is enough to opt in to activating components with questionable security which have not been accepted by the SUSE security team.

Given the number of reviews that happened over many years, with some decline in frequency and activity, we had wrongly assumed that by now the bulk of Deepin D-Bus components had managed to enter openSUSE:Factory after being whitelisted by us (apart from some optional utility packages). Instead we had to find out that core components, which are found in the deepin-daemon package, had never been submitted for our review, but had been smuggled into openSUSE.

A review bug has been running for Deepin file manager since 2019 without the package reaching a satisfying state. Offering users the ability to run a script to activate the problematic components is less critical than automatically doing so via a crafted “license dialog”, but is still an unclean and questionable approach.

3) Review History of Deepin Components

This section gives an overview of the long history of review requests for Deepin components in openSUSE. This should give an insight into the effort that already went into checking Deepin’s security, and the difficulties that we often encountered in attempting to arrive at a good solution.

2017-12-04: deepin-api: Initial Review of D-Bus Service and Polkit Actions

This was the first review request we received for Deepin. It reached us during a time of restructuring in our team, which caused a delay of about half a year before we found time to work on it. deepin-api contained a D-Bus service which ran as root, offering a miscellaneous collection of D-Bus methods on the D-Bus system bus e.g. for playing audio files.

We found various issues in the D-Bus method implementations. Most prominently, any user in the system was allowed to run various commands like rfkill with arbitrary parameters as root. Polkit authentication was only implemented in some of the D-Bus methods, while others merely had a TODO: marker to add authentication. Furthermore, the Polkit authentication that was implemented for some methods was subject to a race condition allowing authentication bypass.

The Deepin packager involved upstream and we started a discussion in the review bug about how to address the issues. A first attempt to fix them produced incomplete results. We asked for a formal security contact at the Deepin project to offer coordinated disclosure, since we found problems in other Deepin components as well in the meantime. We did not receive an answer to this, though.

After this initial activity there was no more progress for six months, which is why we closed the bug due to inactivity in December 2019. In April 2021 the Deepin packager reopened this bug assigning it to an upstream developer. In July 2021 we were finally pointed to the proper fixes for the issues, and we granted a whitelisting for this specific Deepin component in August 2021.

2019-03-25: deepin-clone: Polkit Action com.deepin.pkexec.deepin-clone

deepin-clone is a backup utility for the Deepin desktop. In March 2019 we received a review request for a Polkit action contained in the package. We found a large number of issues in the implementation of this Polkit action, such as problematic predictable /tmp file uses, a world-readable log file in a fixed path in /tmp and the possibility to prevent the unmounting of temporarily mounted block devices.

We reported these issues to the packager in April 2019. In July 2019 we were pointed to a couple of fixes, but we found that some issues had still not been addressed and the code in general still looked unclean. The more severe issues had been fixed at least, thus we requested CVEs for them and published a report on the oss-security mailing list.

We never heard back about the remaining concerns we had, thus the whitelisting for this component was never granted.

2019-05-05: deepin-file-manager: D-Bus Service and Polkit Actions

In May 2019 we received review requests for the D-Bus part and the Polkit part of the deepin-file-manager package. This application is a file manager similar to Dolphin in KDE or Nautilus in GNOME. The D-Bus service implemented in the package offers methods to perform actions like mounting Samba network shares or managing the UNIX group membership for user accounts in the system. This is one of the packages for which the Deepin packager eventually implemented a whitelisting bypass, as explained in section 2).

After reviewing the main D-Bus service, we could not help ourselves but call it a security nightmare. The service methods were not only unauthenticated and thus accessible to all users in the system, but the D-Bus configuration file also allowed anybody to own the D-Bus service path on the system bus, which could lead to impersonation of the daemon. Among other issues, the D-Bus service allowed anybody in the system to create arbitrary new UNIX groups, add arbitrary users to arbitrary groups, set arbitrary users’ Samba passwords or overwrite almost any file on the system by invoking mkfs on them as root, leading to data loss and denial-of-service. The daemon did contain some Polkit authentication code, but it was all found in unused code paths; to top it all off, this code used the deprecated UnixProcess Polkit subject in an unsafe way, which would make it vulnerable to race conditions allowing authentication bypass, if it had been used.

Other Polkit policies found in the package were at least being used. One Polkit action allowed locally logged-in users to run /usr/bin/usb-device-formatter as root without authentication. The program allowed to determine the existence of arbitrary files in the system, and to unmount or format non-busy file systems. A Deepin developer joined the discussion in the bug and again we tried to bring to upstream’s attention the overarching security situation in Deepin, but to no avail.

A couple of bugfixes appeared for the Polkit issues but once more they were incomplete. By December 2019 we did not receive any further responses, thus we closed the bug without whitelisting the Polkit policies. In March 2021 the Deepin packager reopened the bug but only pointed us to supposed fixes later in October 2022. We moved the discussion for the Polkit parts into the other bug for the D-Bus service component at this time.

For the D-Bus service issues we did not receive any response at all, and thus also closed the bug in December 2019 without whitelisting the service. Meanwhile we published our findings on the oss-security mailing list in August 2019. In April 2021 the Deepin packager reopened the bug, stating that upstream would be working on the issues. In August 2021 an upstream developer was assigned to the bug, who pointed to a partial bugfix but at the same time stated that Deepin developers had “different opinions” about the reported security issues, without providing further details, however.

In October 2022 the Deepin packager pointed us to more fixes and a new release packaged for openSUSE. The D-Bus interface received major changes at this point. Polkit authentication was added to some D-Bus calls now, but it again used the deprecated UnixProcess subject in an unsafe manner, which would allow to bypass authentication by winning a race condition. Newly added D-Bus methods also introduced new issues, such as lacking path validation when unmounting Samba shares. Some other methods again were left completely unauthenticated.

In November 2023 the Deepin packager informed us about another new release that was supposed to contain more bugfixes. This time some of the problematic D-Bus methods disappeared completely, but some of the original issues as well as confusing and broken Polkit authentication attempts remained.

In April 2024 the Deepin packager informed us again about a new release containing bugfixes. Some more D-Bus methods simply disappeared, some now actually used proper Polkit authentication based on the D-Bus system bus name. The D-Bus service configuration still allowed any user in the system to impersonate the service, however. Also, once more, a bunch of newly added D-Bus methods introduced new problems. One of them, for example, allowed any user in the system to start the Samba system daemons nmbd and smbd. A lot of path verification issues also lingered in the new APIs.

We did not get further responses for these reviews, and the components are still not whitelisted for openSUSE. Due to the frequent alteration of the D-Bus methods in the Deepin file manager daemon, which led to partial bugfixes and new issues appearing, we also refrained from assigning further CVEs for the issues. Formally, each incomplete bugfix would need a dedicated CVE, which would have led to a confusingly long list of CVEs revolving around the same topic: that the Deepin file manager daemon has major security issues, some of them likely still unfixed.

2019-05-23: deepin-anything: D-Bus Service

In May 2019 we received a review request for the deepin-anything package. This component acts as the back end for a desktop search engine. Given the number of unsolved Deepin related reviews we already faced at this time, we refused to work on this additional review until the others would have been resolved.

Still, just from taking a quick look at the package we noticed yet another issue: the D-Bus service configuration allowed any user in the system to register the deepin-anything service on the system bus.

In September 2024 the Deepin packager approached us again pointing to changes in the upstream D-Bus configuration. We did not get around to looking more closely into it again, as we treated Deepin with lower priority at that time.

2021-02-01: dtkcommon: FileDrag D-Bus Service

Another review request arrived in February 2021. This time it was about a “com.deepin.dtk.FileDrag” D-Bus interface, but the actual implementation of this D-Bus service remained a mystery to be found. In the end, upstream moved this interface to the D-Bus session bus in July 2021 and no whitelisting on our end was necessary after all.

Interestingly the Deepin packager stated in the bug that upstream finds itself unable to respond to security bug reports, which is rather worrying for such a big project with such an amount of security issues uncovered.

2021-02-06: deepin-system-monitor: Polkit Policy

This request also arrived in February 2021. It is one of the few Deepin reviews that was completed quite quickly and without any major worries. The Polkit policy only allowed execution of programs like kill, renice and systemctl via the pkexec utility. This was only allowed with admin authentication. We whitelisted the policy in May 2021.

2023-05-13: deepin-app-services: dde-dconfig-daemon D-Bus Service

Here we see a gap of about two years since the last Deepin review request. This might be due to the fact that the offending deepin-feature-enable package had meanwhile been introduced in May 2021 to circumvent the whitelisting requirements. It seems the packager was still willing to involve us in newly added Deepin packages that contained D-Bus components, however.

Sadly the review of deepin-app-services was another chaotic case, one that is actually still unfinished. Even understanding the purpose of this D-Bus service was difficult, because there wasn’t really any design documentation or purpose description of the component. From looking at the D-Bus service implementation, we judged that it is a kind of system wide configuration store for Deepin. Contrary to most other Deepin D-Bus services, this one is not running as root but as a dedicated unprivileged service user.

We quickly found one class of issues in this D-Bus service, namely the crafting of relative path names by adding ../ components to various D-Bus input parameters that are used for looking up configuration files. It seemed the D-Bus service should only allow the lookup JSON configuration files from trusted paths in /usr. By constructing relative paths, however, the D-Bus service could be tricked into loading untrusted JSON configuration from arbitrary locations. We were not completely sure about the impact of this, given the abstract nature of the configuration store, but it seemed to have security relevance, since upstream reacted to our report of the issue.

It took three passes and a year of time, however, for upstream to fix all combinations of input parameters that would allow construction of arbitrary paths. Upstream did not verify and solve these on their own. Instead they only fixed the concrete issues we reported and, when we returned to the review, we found yet more ways to escape the /usr path restriction.

In December 2024 we were close to whitelisting this D-Bus service. With this much time passed, however, we thought it would be better to have a fresh look at the current situation in the D-Bus interface. This led to a series of new concerns, partly again in the area of path lookup, but also due to the fact that arbitrary users could read and store configuration for arbitrary other users. There was a lack of Polkit authentication and user separation in the interface.

2023-05-13: deepin-api: Follow-up Review of D-Bus and Polkit

In parallel to the deepin-app-services review described in the previous section, we also received a follow-up review request for deepin-api. The trigger for this review was that upstream renamed their D-Bus interface and Polkit action names from com.deepin.* to org.deepin.*.

Luckily, this time the implementation of the D-Bus service did not change much compared to the last time and we could not identify any new security issues. For this reason we quickly accepted the changes and finished the review.

2024-08-29: deepin-api-proxy: D-Bus Service

After a longer time of standstill regarding Deepin reviews, a request for the addition of deepin-api-proxy arrived. This package greeted us with over two dozen D-Bus configuration files. Again, upstream’s description of what the component is supposed to do was very terse. From looking at the implementation we deduced that the proxy component seems to be related to the renaming of interfaces described in the previous section.

We found a design flaw in the proxy’s design which allowed a local root exploit. You can find the details in a dedicated blog post we published about this not too long ago.

It is noteworthy that the communication with upstream proved very difficult during the coordinated disclosure process we started for this finding. We did not get timely responses, which nearly led us to a one-sided publication of the report, until upstream finally expressed their wish to follow coordinated disclosure at the very last moment. The actual publication of the upstream fix was not communicated to us and neither was the bugfix shared or discussed with us. This resulted in a follow-up security issue, since upstream once again relied on the unsafe use of the deprecated Polkit UnixProcess subject for authentication.

The review of this component was also what led us to the discovery of the deepin-feature-enable whitelisting bypass, since we installed the full Deepin desktop environment for the first time in a long time, which triggered the “license agreement” dialog described above. After finding out about this, we decided that it was time to reassess the overall topic of Deepin in openSUSE based on our long-standing experiences.

2024-09-02: deepin-system-monitor: added D-Bus service and new Polkit actions

The deepin-system-monitor received additions in the form of a new D-Bus service and additional Polkit actions. We accepted the D-Bus service although it contained some quirks. We did not find time to fully complete the review of the Polkit actions until now, however. A second look that we had at the D-Bus service showed that it was once more using the deprecated UnixProcess subject for Polkit authentication in an unsafe way. This is something that we had previously overlooked.

4) Conclusions about the Future of Deepin in openSUSE

The experience with Deepin software and its upstream during the code reviews that we performed has not been the best. More than once, security issues we reported have been replaced by new security issues. Other times, upstream did not invest the effort to fully analyze the issues we reported and fixed them insufficiently. Generally the communication with upstream proved difficult, maybe also due to the language barrier. While upstream stated at times that they don’t have enough resources to deal with security reports, which is worrying enough, the design and implementation of Deepin D-Bus components often changed radically in unrelated ways. This makes the security assessment of Deepin components a moving target. Building trust towards Deepin components has thus been extremely difficult over the years.

The history of Deepin code reviews clearly shows that upstream is lacking security culture, and the same classes of security issues keep appearing. Although we only looked at a small fraction of the code Deepin consists of, we found security issues nearly every time we looked at one of its components. Based on these experiences, we expect further security issues to linger in the rest of the Deepin code that does not stick out, as the D-Bus services do (as they run with raised privileges). Given the experiences we have gathered with Deepin D-Bus services, we consider it likely that they break user isolation. These components are certainly not fit for multi-user systems; even on single user systems they will be weakening defense-in-depth significantly.

The discovery of the bypass of the security whitelistings via the deepin-feature-enable package marks a turning point in our assessment of Deepin. We don’t believe that the openSUSE Deepin packager acted with bad intent when he implemented the “license agreement” dialog to bypass our whitelisting restrictions. The dialog itself makes the security concerns we have transparent, so this does not happen in a sneaky way, at least not towards users. It was not discussed with us, however, and it violates openSUSE packaging policies. Beyond the security aspect, this also affects general packaging quality assurance: the D-Bus configuration files and Polkit policies installed by the deepin-feature-enable package are unknown to the package manager and won’t be cleaned up upon package removal, for example. Such bypasses are not deemed acceptable by us.

The combination of these factors led us to the decision to remove the Deepin desktop completely from openSUSE Tumbleweed and from the future Leap 16.0 release. In openSUSE Leap 15.6 we will remove the offending deepin-feature-enable package only. It is a difficult decision given that the Deepin desktop has a considerable number of users. We firmly believe the Deepin packaging and security assessment in openSUSE needs a reboot, however, ideally involving new people that can help get the Deepin packages into shape, establish a relationship with Deepin upstream and keep an eye on bugfixes, thus avoiding fruitless follow-up reviews that just waste our time. In such a new setup we would be willing to have a look at all the sensitive Deepin components again one by one.

This is a process that will take time, of course, and there are limits to what we as a security team can do. Given the size of the Deepin project we would also like to see other Linux distributions and the (security) community join us in trying to establish a better security culture with Deepin upstream.

After publication of this report we received an email response from Deepin upstream and they also published a blog post on the topic which contains similar content. They outline an action plan on how to improve the security stance of Deepin and also intend to solve any unfixed issues we reported by the end of May 2025.

5) How to Continue Using Deepin on openSUSE

Given the security record of Deepin and the concerns expressed in the previous section, we don’t recommend to use the Deepin desktop at this time. If you still would like to install (or continue using) the Deepin desktop on openSUSE Tumbleweed despite the existing security concerns, then you can add the Deepin devel project repositories to your system as follows:

# add the devel project repository for Deepin to zypper
# for other distributions you need to adjust the URL here to point to the proper repository for your case
root# zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/Deepin:/Factory/openSUSE_Tumbleweed deepin-factory
# refresh zypper repositories
root# zypper ref
New repository or package signing key received:

  Repository:       deepin-factory
  Key Fingerprint:  EED7 FE07 D0FC DEF0 E5B4 D4A9 C0DA 4428 1599 EA1E
  Key Name:         X11:Deepin:Factory OBS Project <X11:Deepin:Factory@build.opensuse.org>
  Key Algorithm:    RSA 2048
  Key Created:      Sat Apr 29 01:27:01 2023
  Key Expires:      Mon Jul  7 01:27:01 2025
  Rpm Name:         gpg-pubkey-1599ea1e-644c5645



    Note: Signing data enables the recipient to verify that no modifications occurred after the data
    were signed. Accepting data with no, wrong or unknown signature can lead to a corrupted system
    and in extreme cases even to a system compromise.

    Note: A GPG pubkey is clearly identified by its fingerprint. Do not rely on the key\'s name. If
    you are not sure whether the presented key is authentic, ask the repository provider or check
    their web site. Many providers maintain a web page showing the fingerprints of the GPG keys they
    are using.

Do you want to reject the key, trust temporarily, or trust always? [r/t/a/?] (r):

The current GPG key fingerprint for this project is EED7 FE07 D0FC DEF0 E5B4 D4A9 C0DA 4428 1599 EA1E. You can verify it yourself by downloading the public key , importing it via gpg --import and checking the output of gpg --fingerprint for the newly imported key.

Note that by doing this you will trust any packages originating from this devel project, which are neither vetted by the SUSE security team nor by the openSUSE package submission review teams.

For openSUSE Leap you need to adjust the repository URL to point to the proper Leap repository for your system.

6) References

Dedicated Security Reports

Review Bugs

Change History

2025-05-08 Minor clarifications in Section 3) 2019-05-05: deepin-file-manager and Section 3) 2023-05-13: deepin-app-services. Fixed a typo in Section 5).
2025-05-14 Added a note to the end of section 4) about upstream’s response to this report.

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Get openSUSE Gear at oSC25

Heading to the openSUSE Conference 2025 in Nuremberg? Great news! The project will have a shop available at the conference venue where attendees can purchase openSUSE merchandise! Items available at the shop will include popular products from Freewear.org’s openSUSE section.

Between 100 to 125 items, mainly t-shirts, will be available as a preview of brand-new designs that emphasize Leap, Tumbleweed, Slowroll, Aeon and Kalpa and MicroOS. These new items aren’t yet listed on Freewear.org’s website, but there are plans to update the online shop with all of them after the conference.

If you’re particularly interested in specific items, sizes, or styles, we encourage you to email your request in advance to ddemaio@opensuse.org and ishwon@openSUSE.org with the subject line “oSC25 Shop Selection”. Please do this before June 4 since shipments will happen around this time. This helps us better prepare and ensure we have the most requested items available during the event.

Event Details

  • Conference Dates: June 26 – 28, 2025
  • Location: Z-Bau, Nuremberg, Germany
  • What to Expect: Talks, workshops, and community networking

The openSUSE Conference is a free, community-driven event that brings together contributors, developers and enthusiasts from across the globe to collaborate on open-source software development.

Pre-Party

Kick things off early! Join us for the pre-party on June 25 at Kater Murr.

Come by anytime after 6 p.m. and connect with fellow attendees ahead of the main event. 📍 Kater Murr on OpenStreetMap
📍 Google Maps Location

Stay tuned, get involved, and don’t forget to gear up at oSC25!

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Upgrade to Freedom Campaign Shifts to End of 10

Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14 and this will likely trigger a surge in unnecessary electronic waste (e-waste) on International E-Waste Day, which is a day designed to raise awareness about the global issue of e-waste and promote responsible recycling and disposal practices.

The openSUSE Project’s Upgrade to Freedom campaign urges people to extend the life of their device rather than becoming e-waste. Since millions of Windows 10 users may believe their devices will become useless and contribute to the waste of fully functional devices, installing a Linux operating systems like openSUSE or another Linux distribution is more reasonable.

A new initiative called End of 10 has launched that shares the purposes and origin of openSUSE’s Upgrade to Freedom efforts. As the #endof10 initiative also intends to help people extend the life of devices that would otherwise become e-waste, rather than dilute the messaging and narrative, members of openSUSE marketing have decided to transition the Upgrade to Freedom campaign to joining the End of 10 initiative.

The project will update all its previous Upgrade to Freedom content to reflect these changes.

Many articles in the media report that Microsoft demands new hardware or extended support payments for continued use of Windows. Many users own computers that still run well but fail to meet Windows 11 upgrade requirements.

Most computers built after 2010 can run Linux operating systems like openSUSE, Fedora, or Debian with excellent performance. The campaign encourages users to upgrade their software, not their hardware.

Volunteers developed endof10.org as a resource hub. Users can find local repair groups, download installation tools and offer support to others. The site connects people who want to switch away from Windows with those ready to help.

The End of 10 organizers have launched the first phase with outreach to FOSS communities, Repair Cafes, and media outlets. Over the next several months, they will promote install fests and coordinate local outreach events. They will continue promoting the campaign throughout 2025 as the Windows 10 deadline approaches.

Organizers encourage teachers, developers, and students to join the effort.

We encourage everyone to learn more about the campaign at endof10.org.

Additional Information

What does the “End Of 10” campaign have planned? At the moment, activities include traditional media outreach, social media campaigns, and in-person install events ramping up to 14 October. As an example, we are planning a “Lists of 10” campaign with the hashtag #EndOf10, with topics like:

  • “10 reasons to switch to Linux”
  • “10 Free & Open Source apps to try on your new Linux computer”
  • “10 Free & Open Source apps you may already use but didn’t know it”

Important: End Of 10 wants the larger FOSS universe to be at the center of everything the campaign does. The goal of the campaign is to speak as a big FOSS family and therefore there is no tolerance for negative messaging about other FOSS communities.

We hope you and other FOSS members will join us in the End Of 10 campaign, so we can promote Free & Open Source Software as a solution for Windows 10 users who wish to keep their devices safely in use, together.

This is part of a series on End of 10 where we advocate for Free & Open Source Software as a solution for Windows 10 users who wish to keep their devices rather than contributing to e-waste of functioning devices.

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Qactus v3.0.0 is out!

Qactus 3.0.0 comes with many changes, such as:

  • UI redesign, package-centred with a modern style (Plasma-ish)
  • Code ported to Qt6
  • Improved memory usage
  • New features:
    • Location bar
    • Search bar
    • Project/package overview
    • Getting revisions
    • Getting requests per project/package
  • New logo
  • Multiple fixes (and some bugs? 😉
  • Switch to Apache License 2.0

RPM packages

I have also updated jOBS, a Java-based Open Build Service library and developed a basic GUI for it,
OBS FX; it is a JavaFX-based OBS client with a green touch 🙂

The rpm and zip are available at GitHub.
Download OBS FX

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Framework 2nd Gen Event | Blathering

Framework Computers' 2nd Gen Event showcased exciting announcements, including the Framework Desktop and Laptop 12, emphasizing modularity and repairability. The Desktop features high-speed performance with a compact design, while Laptop 12 targets students with a convertible format. Concerns about resource strain and parts availability were noted, but overall enthusiasm for Framework's innovation remains high.
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the avatar of Open Build Service

Labeling outside of OBS with an API

Over the last few weeks we worked to improve the functionality of Labels. Now, we are ready to present the fruit of that labour. These updates are part of the Labels beta program. You can find more information about the beta program here. Our efforts to foster collaboration started in August 2024, when we introduced labels and bug report links. Next, we improved labels to foster collaboration, allowed labeling projects and introduced the functionality of...

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Fix LibreOffice Scaling Issues on Linux

The author discusses ongoing issues with fractional scaling in LibreOffice, leading to oversized UI elements on certain displays. After searching for solutions, they found that setting the environment variable QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb resolved the scaling problem and improved performance. Overall, they appreciate LibreOffice despite some challenges with the Wayland transition.

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Zypper’s New Parallel Downloads: Speed Up Your openSUSE Tumbleweed Updates

On March 27, 2025, openSUSE announced experimental parallel downloads for its Zypper package manager, aimed at enhancing speed and performance. Users can configure max concurrent connections to enjoy significantly faster updates, addressing connectivity issues. The update is a promising development that improves the user experience in openSUSE Tumbleweed and Leap distributions.
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Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2025/18

Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

This week felt rather quiet – but that’s what we get for having a Thursday holiday (May Day, Labour Day). People tend to take Friday off, too, which in turn makes the entire work week very short (but gives the enthusiast more time to hack on things to balance it out). Despite all this, we have published 6 snapshots during this week (0424…0428, 0501)

There are surely some interesting changes for everybody in there:

  • Java 21 openJDK 21.0.7.0
  • Postfix 3.10.2
  • openSSH 10.0p2: support for the weak DSA signature algorithm removed
  • Python 3.13.3
  • Linux kernel 6.14.4
  • fuse 3.17.2
  • Mesa 25.0.5
  • GCC 15.1.1
  • openSSL 3.5.0

In the staging projects, we are busy testing these submissions by maintainers:

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Tumbleweed Monthly Update - April 2025

The rolling release Tumbleweed continues enhancements in April and brings more usefulness to gamers, developers and others with the delivery of several snapshots.

Among the key highlights this month, Tumbleweed users benefit from a major security boost with OpenSSH 10.0p2, featuring faster, quantum-resistant key exchange and improved session performance. Developers will notice smoother workflows with GDB 16.3’s smarter multithreaded debugging and better tracing tools, while gamers and multimedia users will see enhanced GPU performance and stability thanks to Mesa 25.0.4 and critical fixes in FFmpeg 7.1.1. Audio reliability has improved across more devices with SBC 2.1 and new kernel-firmware-sound 20250408 updates. Meanwhile, major updates to KDE Gear 25.04.0, GTK4 4.18.3, and system packages like iproute2 6.14 and rsyslog 8.2502 bring refinements that enhance daily desktop, server, and development environments. Numerous security vulnerabilities have also been patched across Mozilla Firefox 137.0, PHP 8.4.5, OpenVPN 2.6.14, and Python 3.13.3..

As always, be sure to roll back using snapper if any issues arise.

Happy updating and tumble on!

For more details on the change logs for the month, visit the openSUSE Factory mailing list.

New Features and Enhancements

OpenSSH 10.0p2: This major version brings major security, stability, and performance updates important for all openSUSE Tumbleweed users. It removes support for the outdated DSA algorithm, making SSH connections more secure by default, and introduces faster, quantum-resistant key exchange with mlkem768x25519-sha256. For desktop and server users, SSH sessions are now faster and more efficient thanks to cipher improvements favoring AES-GCM. Developers will benefit from new flexible configuration options, like session-type matching and environment variable expansion. The update also strengthens security by fixing issues with forwarding settings and restructuring the SSH daemon to reduce its attack surface after login. Day-to-day remote access, file transfers, and automation workflows will be more secure, slightly faster, and better prepared for future cryptographic standards.

GDB 16.3: The new major version update improves debugging precision, performance, and integration for developers on openSUSE Tumbleweed. Smarter thread-specific breakpoints reduce overhead when debugging large, multi-threaded applications. Support for watchpoints with tagged pointers, like Intel’s LAM (Linear Address Masking), means better handling of modern CPU features. New tracing options using Intel Processor Trace make it easier to analyze programs at the instruction level. ARM users benefit from improved support for Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) debugging. This release also expands Python scripting APIs and improves Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) integration, helping GDB fit more seamlessly into modern development tools and workflows. Overall, a solid update for anyone working with complex applications or the latest hardware.

SBC 2.1 Another major update brings important under-the-hood improvements for audio handling. SBC (Subband Codec) is widely used for Bluetooth audio, and this update fixes critical issues when running on non-x86 hardware (like ARM-based devices) and ensures better stability when SSE CPU optimizations are disabled. While casual users won’t notice immediate differences, this makes Bluetooth audio more reliable across more systems, especially useful for newer laptops, desktops, and ARM boards. Developers also benefit from cleaner builds and better cross-platform support.

kernel-firmware-sound 20250408: This update adds new Sound Open Firmware (SOF) support for two MediaTek chips: the MT8195 and MT8188. This means improved audio hardware compatibility and support on newer MediaTek-based devices using these chipsets.

xz 5.8.1: The command line tool and utilities package brings performance improvements and a key security fix. The multithreaded .xz decoder now correctly handles invalid input that led to crashes. A performance bug was also fixed to ensure all threads are used during decompression in certain scenarios. For systems using SSE2, such as x86 with musl libc, decompression can be noticeably faster, up to 15 percent in some cases. This update also improves encoder speed on 64-bit PowerPC and RISC-V processors, and adds low-level Application Programming Interface access for BCJ filters on RISC-V, ARM64, and x86_64 . On Linux, xz now uses fsync() to safely sync output files before deleting the input file, with a new --no-sync option if you want to skip that behavior.

rsyslog 8.2502: This maintenance release improves stability, better error handling, and support for newer platforms. The update fixes a multithreading issue in the forwarding module (omfwd), improves TLS support by handling OpenSSL and gnutls handshakes more gracefully, and adds a socketBacklog setting to tune TCP listener behavior. Improvements to Kafka logging and SNMP support are included as well. The package now also supports building under the latest C23 standard, which brings the project up to date with modern compiler toolchains.

tigervnc 1.15.0: This package adds several usability improvements for both viewers and servers. You can now use the back and forward mouse buttons in the native viewer and makes remote desktop navigation smoother. Clipboard redirection has been added to x0vncserver, letting you copy and paste between your local system and the remote desktop. The native viewer now remembers your username and password on reconnect, saving time during repeated sessions. Both the native and Java viewers can display a standard arrow cursor when the server cursor is hidden, making it easier to see where your pointer is. Finally, vncpasswd can now check password strength using pwquality, enhancing security.

ffmpeg 7.1.1: Audio decoding is now more robust, with protections against overflows in WAV file parsing and better handling of invalid DVD video packets. Timecode calculation has been improved to avoid FPS-related overflows. The MJPEG decoder now disallows unsupported progressive Bayer images, and audio packets in fragmented MP4 (mov) files are no longer incorrectly marked as keyframes. OpenVINO support has been disabled to simplify dependencies for openSUSE Factory.

harfbuzz 11.0.1 and 11.1.0: This first minor version of version 11 restores compatibility by reverting a recent change to trak tracking behavior, now applied during shaping instead of directly. It improves shaping performance, refines glyph rendering (like rounding extents and emboldening at the font layer), and adds experimental access to raw CFF/CFF2 CharStrings. The CLI tools now return meaningful error codes and come with optional manpages. The 11.1.0 version improves font subsetting by including bidirectional (bidi) mirroring variants by default, which helps ensure better rendering of right-to-left scripts. A new flag allows disabling this if needed. The release also includes general bug fixes, build improvements, and enhancements to the test suite.

cups 2.4.12: This release now honors system-wide cryptographic policies with GnuTLS and adds an option (NoSystem) to opt out. Users will see clearer alerts when secure IPP printing (IPPS) encounters certificate issues, and the scheduler now logs detailed debug history if a backend fails. Bug fixes address potential job loss during install failures, improved PPD option parsing, and better IPP keyword validation.

Key Package Updates

kernel-source 6.14.4 and 6.14.3: The 6.14.4 version was a small maintenance update for the Linux Kernel that fixes several memory leaks, improves Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stability, and resolves issues with SCSI, RAID and sound drivers. Networking reliability is enhanced, especially for IPv6 and Open vSwitch users. This release also brings a few targeted fixes for Intel IGC networking, block device handling, and hardware-specific improvements for devices like Rockchip CAN and AMD graphics. The 6.14.3 update provided Bluetooth reliability improvements for some Qualcomm devices, while fixes in graphics drivers like Intel and VirtIO solve flickering and memory leaks. Networking sees more robust handling in drivers like ethtool and TLS, which benefits server admins and gaming setups relying on low-latency connections. Developers and advanced users benefit from better tracing tools and memory management fixes, reducing the chance of subtle bugs during debugging.

systemd 257.5: This maintenance updates documentation and test behavior. It fixes the location references for pstore.conf and coredump.conf templates, which is important for admins managing system crashes or dumps. It also adjusts network tests by using a copy instead of a symlink for default network configuration.

libxmlb 0.3.22: This release improves file integrity checks and XML export reliability. This release adds safeguards to detect file truncation and malformed string tables, preventing potential crashes or data corruption when working with .xmlb binary XML files. For developers, exporting XML with the COLLAPSE_EMPTY feature is now supported and more robust, especially when dealing with empty elements or silos. These improvements help ensure tools using libxmlb (like GNOME Software) handle XML metadata more reliably.

GTK4 4.18.3: This update improves text editing by fixing margins, double-click selections, and dead key handling. The update resolves a regression where input methods showed incorrect positions when line numbers were enabled. It also improves menu behavior on mobile by preventing text overflow and ensures window resizing always works. Accessibility stability is improved by fixing errors related to accessibility relations. The column view and listbox widgets now handle measurements and selections more reliably. The GTK Inspector now remembers some user interface states between sessions. Several internal fixes reduce warnings and improve memory management when running on Wayland. The release also includes documentation updates and refreshed translations.

Mesa 25.0.4: This bugfix update improves performance and stability across several GPUs and games. AMD users with GFX8/Polaris cards will see better performance in titles like Elden Ring, and GPU hangs in The Last of Us Part I on RDNA3 (gfx1201) have been resolved. Vulkan 1.4 support continues, bringing smoother rendering and compatibility improvements for modern games. Fixes also address visual glitches in Satisfactory, rendering errors on Intel Battlemage (BMG), and memory leaks in Vulkan swapchain handling.

KDE Gear 25.04.0: This release brings refined accessibility, right-to-left language support, safer file operations, digital signing with Okular, and better performance in creative tools like KWave and Kdenlive. It also includes enhancements for social media apps like Mastodon client Tokodon, with support for scheduled posts and content filters, and introduces useful new features in travel, productivity, and system tools.

curl 8.13.0: This version now supports TLS 1.3 early data with OpenSSL/quictls, adds ECH support with DoH in rustls, and introduces --upload-flags for IMAP uploads. You can also load URLs from a file and access new write-out variables like tls_earlydata. Numerous bug fixes improve HTTP/2 handling, OpenSSL compatibility, and SSH file transfers.

fwupd 2.0.8: This super-thin layer library n the DBus interface adds support for updating the UEFI Signature Database and KEK via two new plugins and now reports the updated UEFI db as part of the device’s HSI attributes. The update improves compatibility with UEFI systems and fixes bugs related to EFI paths, Redfish detection on non-Supermicro systems, and JSON mode behavior. It also ensures safer firmware updates on UEFI-capable architectures and enhances support for certain device protocols.

iproute2 6.14: This version adds new functionality for advanced networking setups, including support for IPv6 flow labels in ip route and ip rule, monitoring for multicast addresses via ip monitor maddress, and improved readability in ss by showing Multipath Transmission Control Protocol subflow sequence counters in decimal format.

** selinux-policy 20250410**: This update provides a fix to allow logging into Podman containers from a terminal (TTY), which resolved issues some users faced with interactive sessions. It also introduces a test for RPM builds in the CI pipeline. A workaround has been included to address persistent issues with semodule removal, pending a more permanent fix (PED-12491).

python313 3.13.3: This update bundled libraries like libexpat for improved security, fixes multiple bugs affecting subprocess handling, sockets, and gzip files, and corrects crashes and resource leaks in rare cases. Important security improvements include safer email header handling and better tempfile behavior.

Bug Fixes and Security Updates

Several key security vulnerabilities were addressed this month. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures this month are:

Security Updates

Mozilla Firefox 137.0:

php 8.4.5:

openvpn 2.6.14:

  • CVE-2024-28882: Authenticated client could force server to keep session alive.
  • CVE-2024-5594: DoS via control channel with malformed data.
  • CVE-2025-2704: --tls-crypt-v2 misuse leading to assertion failures.

ffmpeg 7.1.1:

  • CVE-2025-1816: Missing constraints for audio element parameter count.
  • CVE-2025-22919: Fixed reachable assertion in FFmpeg that could cause DoS via crafted AAC files.
  • CVE-2025-0518: Fixed unchecked return value and out-of-bounds read in FFmpeg’s af_pan.c, preventing data leaks.

poppler 25.04.0:

  • CVE-2025-32364: Fixed a floating-point exception in Poppler’s PSStack::roll function triggered by malformed input.
  • CVE-2025-32365: Fixed out-of-bounds read in Poppler’s JBIG2Bitmap::combine function due to misplaced isOk check.

c-ares 1.34.5:

  • CVE-2025-31498: Fixed a use-after-free in c-ares read_answers() caused by premature connection closure handling.

giflib:

mozjs128 128.8.1:

  • CVE-2025-2857: Sandbox escape via IPC handle mismanagement on Windows.
  • CVE-2024-43097: Out-of-bounds write in SkRegion due to integer overflow.
  • CVE-2025-1930: Use-after-free in AudioIPC allowing sandbox escape on Windows.
  • CVE-2025-1931: Use-after-free in WebTransport connection handling.
  • CVE-2025-1932: Out-of-bounds access in xslt/txNodeSorter due to inconsistent comparator.
  • CVE-2025-1933: WASM i32 return values may pick up bits from leftover memory on 64-bit CPUs.
  • CVE-2025-1934: Fixed a RegExp bailout flaw in Firefox that allowed unexpected JavaScript execution and GC triggering.
  • CVE-2025-1935: Fixed an issue where websites could trick users into setting them as default URL protocol handlers.
  • CVE-2025-1936: jar: URL handling flaw could allow code hiding in web extensions.

xz 5.8.1:

  • CVE-2025-31115: Heap use-after-free and null pointer dereference in multithreaded .xz decoder.

python-h11 0.16.0:

  • CVE-2025-43859: Fixed lenient line terminator parsing in h11, preventing potential HTTP request smuggling.

augeas:

  • CVE-2025-2588: Null pointer dereference in Augeas re_case_expand, potentially leading to crashes.

java-21-openjdk 21.0.7.0

  • CVE-2025-21587: Fixed a JSSE flaw in Java SE allowing remote data access/modification via crafted protocol input.
  • CVE-2025-30691: Fixed a Java SE compiler flaw that allowed limited remote access to application data.
  • CVE-2025-30698: Fixed a flaw in Java SE 2D allowing remote attackers to access or modify limited data or cause partial DoS.

libraw 0.21.4:

  • CVE-2025-43964: Fixed missing minimum checks for w0 and w1 in LibRaw’s tag 0x412 processing.

  • CVE-2025-43962: Fixed out-of-bounds read in LibRaw’s phase_one_correct due to improper handling of tag 0x412 values.

  • CVE-2025-43961: Fixed out-of-bounds read in LibRaw’s Fujifilm tag parser in metadata/tiff.cpp.

  • CVE-2025-43963: Fixed out-of-bounds access in LibRaw’s phase_one_correct due to unchecked image split values.

python311:

  • CVE-2025-0938: Fixed improper parsing in Python’s urllib.parse that accepted invalid square-bracketed domains.

libsoup2:

  • CVE-2025-2784: Fixed potential HTTP/2 request queue issue leading to unexpected behavior or resource exhaustion.
  • CVE-2025-32050: Addressed a flaw where incorrect HTTP/2 stream reset handling could cause crashes.
  • CVE-2025-32052: Fixed improper HTTP trailer processing that could cause request handling errors.
  • CVE-2025-32053: Resolved an issue with trailer field names incorrectly accepting invalid characters.

libxml2:

  • CVE-2025-32415: Fixed a heap buffer overflow in xmlSchemaIDCFillNodeTables during XML Schema validation.
  • CVE-2025-32414: Limited Python bindings’ XML reading to prevent buffer overreads when parsing data.

Users are advised to update to the latest versions to mitigate these vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

April 2025 continued to show why Tumbleweed is a benchmark for modern Linux distributions. This month brought major security advancements with OpenSSH 10, deeper hardware compatibility through new kernel firmware and Mesa updates. It also brings smarter developer tools with GDB 16.3 and KDE Gear 25.04. April’s snapshots delivered faster, quantum-resistant SSH sessions, improved Bluetooth audio reliability, and boosted game performance, making Tumbleweed even more capable across desktops, servers, and ARM-based systems.

Slowroll Arrivals

Please note that these updates also apply to Slowroll and arrive between an average of 5 to 10 days after being released in Tumbleweed snapshot. This monthly approach has been consistent for many months, ensuring stability and timely enhancements for users. Updated packages for Slowroll are regularly published in emails on openSUSE Factory mailing list ](https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/).

Contributing to openSUSE Tumbleweed

Stay updated with the latest snapshots by subscribing to the openSUSE Factory mailing list. For those Tumbleweed users who want to contribute or want to engage with detailed technological discussions, subscribe to the openSUSE Factory mailing list . The openSUSE team encourages users to continue participating through bug reports, feature suggestions and discussions.

Your contributions and feedback make openSUSE Tumbleweed better with every update. Whether reporting bugs, suggesting features, or participating in community discussions, your involvement is highly valued.