Esta es una aplicació que tardó más de diez años en aparecer en el blog, algo que hace 5 años remedié… aunque no del todo bien porque ha vuelto a caer en el ostracismo. De nuevo es hora de volver a sacar este programa ya que ha sido lazando KPhotoAlbum6.0, , un organizador de fotos sencillo y eficiente que te ayudará a mantener tu colección de recuerdos digitales ordenada y accesible.
Lanzado KPhotoAlbum 6.0, organiza tus fotos de forma sencilla
Antes de nada quiero recordar que ya existe un más que completo gestor de imágenes en KDE llamado digiKam que puede manejar con precisión milimétrica tus imágenes, pero en ocasiones necesitamos algo más sencillo. En otras palabras, tenemos a Gimp para trabajar con imágenes pero en ocasiones con Tux Paint o KolourPaint nos basta y sobra.
Así es donde entra KPhotoAlbum, una aplicación para los que no quieren toda la complejidad de digiKam. Pues bien, el pasado 7 de diciembre ha sido anunciado que se ha lanzado la sexta versión, una versión importante ya que da el salto a Qt6/KF6. Pero mejor que lo explique uno de sus desarrolladores:
Hemos portado KPhotoAlbum a Qt6/KF6. Eso es todo 😉
El port en sí ha sido hecho por Johannes y yo, commits adicionales han sido aportados por Randall Rude y Fabian Würfl. ¡Gracias por trabajar en KPA con nosotros!
Una cosa que vale la pena mencionar es que para la funcionalidad de mapas/geodatos, necesitamos Marble. La versión Qt5/KF5 de Marble no se puede co-instalar con la versión Qt6/KF6, y ésta aún no está liberada. Pero Marble 24.12.0 (que será la primera versión oficial Qt6/KF6) saldrá en unos días. Así que espera a que salga antes de actualizar a KPA 6, para no perder las partes del mapa.
Quizás, la versión Qt6/KF6 contenga algunas regresiones. El código base está bastante avanzado en años en algunas partes, y hemos tenido que meternos con bastantes problemas heredados para hacer que todo encaje en Qt6/KF6. Así que si notas algo, por favor, presenta un informe de error respectivo y/o ponte en contacto con nosotros a través de nuestra lista de correo o canal Matrix (cf. Soporte al usuario → Comunicación). Gracias por tu participación (esperemos que no sea demasiado necesaria).
Que te diviertas mucho con KPhotoAlbum 6 🙂
Tobias
Como vemos, una buena noticia porque a partir de ahora su desarrollo será mucho más fluído ya que estará integrada con el resto de aplicaciones del ecosistema KDE.
Most people don’t give much thought to their operating system, but with Windows 10 support ending in October 2025, many will start searching for alternatives that keep them secure without spending more than $100 for a software upgrade or on hardware that still works perfectly.
User-friendly Linux distribution like openSUSE and others offer an excellent solution for everyday tasks like social media, video conferencing, web browsing and more.
If you’re a casual computer user wondering whether you can accomplish the same tasks on Linux that you’ve been doing on Windows, the answer is a resounding YES!
From messaging apps like Telegram to video conferencing with Zoom, openSUSE has you covered. This guide will show you how easy it is to get started with Linux and continue using the apps and tools you’re familiar with.
Get the below applications as a Flatpak in the software center of your desktop environment.
Web Browsing: Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and More
Browsing the web on Linux is just as simple as it is on Windows or macOS. openSUSE supports a wide range of web browsers, including some of the most popular names in the market.
Mozilla Firefox comes pre-installed with most Linux distributions, including openSUSE. It’s fast, privacy-focused, and supports all major web standards, making it perfect for everything from casual browsing to online shopping and video streaming.
Google Chrome is available on Linux and can be installed easily on openSUSE. If you’re used to Chrome’s features, including syncing bookmarks and settings across devices, you’ll feel right at home.
Brave is another great option for privacy-conscious users. It blocks trackers and ads by default and gives people a fast and secure browsing experience. Brave is also easy to install on openSUSE.
All these browsers support extensions and features you’re already familiar with, so switching to Linux won’t feel like a big leap.
Social Media Apps: Telegram, Discord, and More
Staying connected on social media is easy, especially getting your favorite apps for messaging, video calls and group chats. Whether as a native downloadable app or as Flatpak app, you will hardly know a difference.
Telegram is available for Linux and can be installed directly from the openSUSE software repositories. It works just like the version you’re used to. It allows you to chat, make voice calls and share media with your contacts.
Discord, a popular platform for gamers and communities, this also works seamlessly on Linux. You can download the Linux version from the Discord website or install it as a Flatpak for easy updates. Whether you’re chatting with friends or joining online communities, Discord on openSUSE is just as powerful as its Windows counterpart.
Signal, a privacy-focused messaging app, is available for Linux and ensures that your chats are secure with end-to-end encryption. It’s a great alternative to WhatsApp for privacy-conscious users.
Video Conferencing: Zoom and Alternatives
Video conferencing has become a staple for work and personal use, and openSUSE has strong support for popular platforms like Zoom and others.
Zoom offers a Linux version that works just like the Windows app. You can download it from Zoom’s official website or use the Flatpak version. Whether you’re attending work meetings, online classes or virtual hangouts with friends, Zoom on openSUSE is fully functional and reliable.
Jitsi Meet is a free, open-source alternative to Zoom that doesn’t require any installation. You can use it directly from your web browser. The project even uses it for its online bar making it a quick and easy option for video conferencing without the need for additional software. Visit the openSUSE Bar and the may be some people there ready to explain how easy it is to move to Linux.
Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are also fully supported on Linux via web browsers like Chrome or Firefox, so you can join meetings without any issues. There is even an unofficial Flatpak app for Teams.
Email: Thunderbird, Evolution, and More
Managing your email is easy through the browser or on with several great apps to choose from.
Mozilla Thunderbird is a popular email client that comes pre-installed on many Linux distributions, including openSUSE. It supports multiple email accounts, calendars and task management, which makes it great for everyday use.
Evolution is another feature-rich email client that supports Microsoft Exchange, Google accounts, and more. It’s an option if you need advanced email, calendar, and task management features.
Gmail, Outlook, and other web-based email services are fully accessible via your preferred browser, just as they are on Windows.
Streaming and Multimedia: Spotify, VLC and More
Linux supports popular platforms for streaming music, videos and other media.
Spotify has an official Linux client that you can install on openSUSE. It works the same as it does on other operating systems, giving you access to your playlists, podcasts and favorite music.
VLC Media Player is the go-to app for playing virtually any media file. Whether you’re watching movies, TV shows or home videos, VLC’s powerful playback features make it a top choice on a Linux distribution.
YouTube and other streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, are fully supported on Linux via web browsers like Chrome or Firefox.
File Sharing and Cloud Storage: Dropbox, Google Drive, and Nextcloud
Managing your files and cloud storage is simple on openSUSE.
Nextcloud is a popular open-source alternative to commercial cloud storage services. It allows you to host your own cloud storage solution, giving you full control over your files.
Dropbox has a Linux client that integrates seamlessly with your desktop and allows you to sync files just as you would on Windows or macOS.
Google Drive can be accessed through the web browser.
How to Install
Users transitioning from Windows 10 to openSUSE should know it has the same functionality for common tasks like browsing, messaging, video conferencing, and media streaming, but without the need for expensive hardware and software upgrades. Here is an easy step-by-step guide to downloading software on your openSUSE Linux distribution:
KDE Plasma: Using Discover Software Center
KDE Plasma’s default software center is called Discover, which provides an easy way to search for and install applications.
Plasma Step 1: Open Discover
Click on the Application Launcher (bottom-left corner of your screen, represented by a green chameleon logo or KDE logo).
Type Discover in the search bar, and click on the Discover app to open it.
Plasma Step 2: Search for Software
Once Discover is open, you’ll see a search bar at the top.
Type the name of the software you’re looking for, such as “Firefox,” “Telegram,” or “Zoom.”
Plasma Step 3: Install the Application
Click on the application from the search results.
Click the Install button.
Wait for the installation process to complete. Once done, the Install button will change to Launch.
Plasma Step 4: Launch the Application
You can launch the newly installed application from the Discover window by clicking Launch, or find it in your Application Launcher.
GNOME: Using GNOME Software Center
GNOME’s default software center is called GNOME Software, which functions similarly to an app store.
GNOME Step 1: Open GNOME Software
Click on Activities in the top-left corner of your screen.
Type Software in the search bar, and click on GNOME Software to open it.
GNOME Step 2: Search for Software
At the top of the GNOME Software window, there’s a search bar.
Type the name of the software you want to install, such as “Brave,” “Signal,” or “Spotify.”
GNOME Step 3: Install the Application
Select the application from the search results.
Click the Install button.
GNOME Software will handle the download and installation. Once finished, you can launch the app directly from the software center.
GNOME Step 4: Launch the Application
After installation, you can click the Launch button in the software center, or find the app in the Activities overview by searching for it.
Whether you’re using KDE Plasma or GNOME, installing software on openSUSE is straightforward with the software centers. Both Discover (KDE) and GNOME Software provide user-friendly interfaces that allow you to search for, install, and manage your applications just like you would in an app store. This makes it easy for users transitioning from Windows 10 to feel comfortable using their new Linux system for everyday tasks.
This is part of a series on Upgrade to Freedom where we offer reasons to transition from Windows to Linux.
Hace mucho tiempo que no presento un vídeo personalizando KDE. Para retomar esta sección nada mejor que una creación de la Comunidad OpenShield en el que personaliza su ArchLinux con el tema Marge de Seducción Linux, todo explicado paso a paso desde el inicio hasta el resultado final. ,
Personalizando KDE con el tema Marge de Seducción Linux por OpenShield
Se ha comentdo muchas veces, una de las fortalezas del entorno de trabajo Plasma de la Comunidad KDE es los cientos de opciones que tenemos para personalizarlo. Esto nos lleva a poder realizar verdaderas transformaciones que lo dejan visual y funcionalmente muy alejado de su aspecto inicial o miméticamente parecido a cualquier otro entorno de trabajo (lease escritorio Gnome, Windows, Mac, etc.)
Pero claro, hacerlo significa «jugar» un poco con el sistema, requeriendo tiempo y conocimientos, sobre todo si quiero que quede perfectamente harmonioso. Es por ello que el vídeo que os presento hoy es muy interesante si quieres llegar a tener un entorno de trabajo minimalista como el de la imagen inferior.
Se trata de una vídeo realizado por OpenShield, en el que lo de menos es el resultado final, que es cuestión de gustos, sino todo el proceso explicado al detalles, incluyendo los pequeños inconvenientes que a veces aparecen, como el de tener que seleccionar alguna versión antes que otra o la de restaurar un icono que no se ha cargado de forma correcta.
Respecto al aspecto visual, decir que la idea es optimizar el tema oscuro Marge, creado por el gran Jomada (X, Telegram, Mastodon, Youtube), que utiliza la misma paleta de colores del tema Otto, pero incluyendo un color azul oriental, siguiendo la sugerencia que le dejó un usuario de la kde store.
¿Qué es OpenShield?
Gracias a mi participación al III Seminario Anual GNU/Linux estoy acercándome a la Comunidad OpenShield, una comunidad centralizada en Youtube pero con extensiones en muchas otras redes. De hecho se definen como un canal de esta red de vídeos, pero creo que es mucho más:
Canal de YouTube dedicado a crear contenido sobre GNULinux y Ciberseguridad. Ayudar y hacer llegar la oportunidad de las personas puedan escoger que usar y como usar, todo con una sola visión, la mejora de la calidad y educación de las personas. También tenemos en este proyecto nuestra Academia GNULinux que está orientada por ahora a creación de webinars y próximamente ya a la enseñanza propiamente dicha. Encuéntranos en:
Mastodon nos permite eliminar toots que hemos publicado pudiendo elegir qué lapso de tiempo y características permitimos
Allá por el prescindible 2020 escribí un artículo sobre esto mismo, borrar toots antiguos de tu cuenta de Mastodon. Por aquel entonces mencionaba dos herramientas que a día de escribir este ya no están disponibles.
Lo bueno, es que Mastodon ha evolucionado lo suficiente para incorporar esta funcionalidad de manera nativa. Así que vamos a actualizarnos y ver cómo lo podemos hacer.
En primer lugar quizás te preguntes ¿Por qué iba a querer yo borrar toots antiguos? Mi respuesta a eso es: ¿Por qué no ibas a quererlo?
Los toots ocupan espacio en el servidor donde están alojados, y ¿realmente te interesa mantener algo que dijiste hace un tiempo?
Quizás ya no pienses lo mismo sobre aquello que dijiste hace medio año, quizás sí piensas lo mismo pero no crees que esto pueda ser importante a día de hoy para nadie más. O quizás simplemente eres consciente de la imperdurabilidad de las cosas en el continuo espacio tiempo y más en algo tan efímero como es internet.
Bueno, en todo caso y sea cual sea las razones, os voy a explicar cómo configurar la fecha de caducidad de tus toots en Mastodon y que estos desaparezcan.
Desde la interfaz web de Mastodon, abrimos el menú de configuración de tu cuenta pinchando sobre los tres puntitos al lado de tu avatar y de todas las opciones escogemos «Eliminación automática de publicaciones».
En la pantalla que nos aparece tenemos distintas opciones que podemos configurar. Son bastante intuitivas y está todo bien explicado, así que no faltaría más que escoger las opciones que queremos para nuestro caso y aplicar los cambios.
En mi caso, tengo configurado que elimine mis toots más antiguos de 2 meses, pero que mantenga los toots que he marcado como fijados, los que me he marcado como favoritos, los mensajes directos que envío a otros usuarios y a los que he añadido un marcador (marcador que no he utilizado en la vida).
También puedes hacer que se mantengan aquellos toots tuyos que hayan tenido cierta relevancia, haciendo que no se borren los que han llegado un número determinado de impulsos o favoritos. Haciendo así perennes aquellos toots que a tus seguidores más les ha gustado y recreándote de ser un «influencer» del fediverso.
Establece (o no) el borrado de tus toots y configúralo a tu gusto en Mastodon de manera nativa en las opciones. Y si te gusta lo que escribo en Mastodon, disfrútalo, porque en dos meses (más o menos) se perderán como lágrimas en la lluvia…
Users of openSUSE can now rely on the built-in switcherooctl tool for GPU switching, which is already integrated into our distributions with major desktop environments like GNOME and KDE Plasma.
This is a game changer because it eliminates the need for additional tools and simplifies multi-GPU management while enhancing compatibility and performance with users’ systems.
For years, tools such as suse-prime and bbswitch have been staples in managing NVIDIA Optimus laptops and multi-GPU systems, but advancements in kernel drivers and desktop environments have made these tools unnecessary in most cases.
Installations of openSUSE now handle these configurations out of the box, whether using the open-source Nouveau driver or NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers.
In a recent update on multi-GPU systems, users are encouraged to move away from legacy tools like suse-prime, bbswitch, and bumblebee, as they can cause more harm than good on modern systems.
The recommended solution is switcherooctl, which is a lightweight userspace utility designed to manage GPU switching on systems with multiple GPUs. It integrates well with Wayland and Xorg; its functionality extends across both Intel + NVIDIA and AMD + NVIDIA setups. By using switcherooctl, users can easily select which GPU to use for specific applications and eliminate the need for complex scripts or environment variables.
Benefits of switcherooctl
Seamless Integration: Unlike older tools, switcherooctl is designed to work natively with modern Linux systems and desktop environments. This ensures a smoother user experience without requiring complex configurations.
Improved Performance: Users can specify which GPU to use for specific tasks, so switcherooctl enables optimal performance. Compute-heavy applications, such as gaming or 3D rendering, can utilize the discrete GPU, while less intensive tasks default to the integrated GPU to save power.
Enhanced Power Management: Switching back to the integrated GPU when the discrete GPU is not needed conserves battery life and makes it ideal for laptops and portable systems.
Wayland and Xorg Compatibility: With increasing adoption of Wayland, having a tool that supports both Wayland and Xorg ensures compatibility across a broad range of systems and setups.
Cross-Vendor Support: The Intel + NVIDIA or AMD + NVIDIA configuration make the systems more versatile for all users.
Users should being embracing switcherooctl for multi-GPU management as some of the older tools like suse-prime, bbswitch and bumblebee are likely to be phased out.
Users of openSUSE can now rely on the built-in switcherooctl tool for GPU switching, which is already integrated into our distributions with major desktop environments like GNOME and KDE Plasma.
This is a game changer because it eliminates the need for additional tools and simplifies multi-GPU management while enhancing compatibility and performance with users’ systems.
For years, tools such as suse-prime and bbswitch have been staples in managing NVIDIA Optimus laptops and multi-GPU systems, but advancements in kernel drivers and desktop environments have made these tools unnecessary in most cases.
Installations of openSUSE now handle these configurations out of the box, whether using the open-source Nouveau driver or NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers.
In a recent update on multi-GPU systems, users are encouraged to move away from legacy tools like suse-prime, bbswitch, and bumblebee, as they can cause more harm than good on modern systems.
The recommended solution is switcherooctl, which is a lightweight userspace utility designed to manage GPU switching on systems with multiple GPUs. It integrates well with Wayland and Xorg; its functionality extends across both Intel + NVIDIA and AMD + NVIDIA setups. By using switcherooctl, users can easily select which GPU to use for specific applications and eliminate the need for complex scripts or environment variables.
Benefits of switcherooctl
Seamless Integration: Unlike older tools, switcherooctl is designed to work natively with modern Linux systems and desktop environments. This ensures a smoother user experience without requiring complex configurations.
Improved Performance: Users can specify which GPU to use for specific tasks, so switcherooctl enables optimal performance. Compute-heavy applications, such as gaming or 3D rendering, can utilize the discrete GPU, while less intensive tasks default to the integrated GPU to save power.
Enhanced Power Management: Switching back to the integrated GPU when the discrete GPU is not needed conserves battery life and makes it ideal for laptops and portable systems.
Wayland and Xorg Compatibility: With increasing adoption of Wayland, having a tool that supports both Wayland and Xorg ensures compatibility across a broad range of systems and setups.
Cross-Vendor Support: The Intel + NVIDIA or AMD + NVIDIA configuration make the systems more versatile for all users.
Users should being embracing switcherooctl for multi-GPU management as some of the older tools like suse-prime, bbswitch and bumblebee are likely to be phased out.
Sigo con entradas de mi marca de ordenadores favorita: Slimbook. Y es queme he dado cuenta que algunos de sus dispositivos no habían sido presentados en el blog. Como podemos ver en su página web ofrecen su nuevo NAS CUBE, un pequeño servidor ideal para pequeñas empresas que no quieran perder su información y centralizar sus servicios.
NAS CUBE de Slimbook, un servidor compacto y potente
Antes de empezar quiero destacar no penséis que hago toda esta publicidad porque reciba una compensación económica, simplemente porque confio en esta empresa que no olvida que el Software Libre es algo más que Software y que busca ofrecer no solo productos sino un excelente servicio post-venta, algo que en muchas ocasiones olvidamos que es importante.
Dentro de la gama de ordenadores de sobremesa, la empresa valenciana Slimbook presentó hace poco su NAS CUBE, un compacto pero potente servidor, que según ellos mismos es:
el servidor que toda PYME necesita, ideal para compartir ficheros, con una CPU potente que permite ejecutar contenedores, máquinas virtuales y servicios. Incluye redundancia con cuatro puertos de red de 2.5 Gbps
Algunas de las características de este NASS CUBE son las siguientes:
Welcome to the second edition of our new spotlight series. With these posts we
want to give you an insight into activities of the SUSE security team beyond
major security findings for which we are publishing dedicated reports. Autumn
is always a busy time at SUSE, when new service pack releases and new products
are prepared. This results also in an increased amount of review requests
arriving for the SUSE security team. This time we will be looking at various
D-Bus interfaces, Polkit authentication, temporary file handling issues, a
small PAM module and setgid-binary, Varlink IPC in systemd as well as some
other topics.
Keepalived Follow-up Review
In bsc#1218688 we looked
into Keepalived, a load-balancing software
written in C. A colleague in the team noticed suspicious handling of temporary
files in /tmp and asked for a more in-depth review.
Temporary File Handling
The creation of temporary files in Keepalived is indeed a bit peculiar. The
make_tmp_filename()
helper function takes the basename of a temporary file and returns a path to this file in
$TMPDIR. An example use would be make_tmp_filename("keepalived.json") and
the function will return /tmp/keepalived.json. This can easily lead to
unsafe temporary file creation.
In the code the resulting filenames are always coupled with another utility
function
fopen_safe(),
though. This function intercepts attempts to open files for writing ("w"
mode) and calls the mkostemp() function behind the scenes to safely create a
temporary file. The resulting file will then not be used as-is, though, but
will be rename()‘d to the expected predictable filename. This is safe,
because rename() will not follow symlinks or otherwise reuse the target
path, but simply replace it.
D-Bus Implementation
Keepalived also implements a D-Bus system service running as root. Our team
reviewed this component many years
ago, which led to
multiple CVE assignments. Therefore it seemed like a good idea to have a fresh
look at the current situation, while we’re at it. We couldn’t find any
problems, though. The code is non-trivial but robust. The D-Bus methods can
only be called by root. Only some D-Bus properties can be accessed by
unprivileged users, but they are not sensitive in nature.
DKIMproxy Symlink Attack
Our team is monitoring changes to systemd services across all of openSUSE
Tumbleweed. One such change occurred in
DKIMproxy and led us to
bsc#1217173. DKIMproxy
is a proxy designed for the Postfix mail server. It implements the DKIM
standard for signing outgoing email or verifying incoming email.
The package’s systemd service is not part of the upstream sources, but has
been added by the package maintainer on packaging level in the Open Build
Service.
In this service unit a shell script is executed via ExecStartPre with root
privileges, while the actual service runs with the lowered privileges of a
dedicated service user and group. The shell script performs naive write
operations in a directory owned by the unprivileged user. Therefore the
unprivileged user can prepare symlink attacks to cause arbitrary file
overwrite in the system, as soon as the script is executed again. The content
that is written is not controlled by the attacker, therefore this only has
denial-of-service impact and does not allow to raise privileges.
We can observe a number of aspects in this case that, based on our experience,
represent typical patterns. In the following sections we will look at these in
more detail.
Files Added on Packaging Level
Assets like configuration files, scripts or code that are added on packaging
level have an increased probability of introducing problems. Some of the
reasons for this could be:
there are less people that review such contributions.
the process for adding these files is less formalized than e.g. in a GitHub
project.
packagers that add such files might be lacking knowledge about the upstream
project.
packagers might accept such files from others that want a certain feature or
behavior and don’t know exactly what it does.
packagers might take over such files from other Linux distributions,
assuming that they are of high quality.
Since we identified that such packaging assets carry an increased risk for
issues, we are monitoring additions of and changes to such files in the Open
Build Service to look out for problems proactively.
Pre- or Post-Scripts in systemd Services
When privilege separation is in place for a systemd service, we can often
find such ExecStartPre and ExecStartPost scripts that are run with raised
privileges. This mixture of two different security domains can easily
introduce local security issues. This risk is further increased by the fact
that these programs are often shell scripts that offer no built-in mechanisms
to safely access files owned by unprivileged users as root.
Privilege Separation added after the Fact
Especially in older software that was initially designed to run with full
root privileges, privilege separation is sometimes only added as an
afterthought, or an unofficial downstream add-on on packaging level. On the
surface, such setups often seem to provide privilege separation, i.e. one or
more components are running as non-root accounts. This privilege separation
can often be easily circumvented as soon as the unprivileged account is
compromised, however.
Such weak privilege separation can still offer some level of protection and
is usually an improvement over services running as full root. Still, the
lack of robustness means that a false promise is given to administrators:
namely, that strong separation of privileges exists for such services. The
defense in depth is lacking, though, and a change of security scope can
happen. Thus, such issues are usually considered worthy of a CVE assignment.
In our team we assign or request CVEs for such issues on a case-by-case basis,
depending on the severity of the issue, the popularity of the affected
software and so on. In the case of DKIMproxy only a denial-of-service can
happen and the software is not that widespread, thus we decided not to assign
a CVE for it.
Handling of a Vulnerability Report in MirrorCache (CVE-2024-49505)
We have been privately approached by security researcher Erick Fernando about
a reflected XSS vulnerability in the openSUSE
MirrorCache repository. MirrorCache
is a web server that redirects download requests to a mirror according to
configuration. We handled the report in
bsc#1232341 and assigned
CVE-2024-49505 to it. The responsible maintainer applied a fix for the issue
and our team member Paolo Perego verified the patch.
Luckily the MirrorCache project is not part of any official products or server
side infrastructure of SUSE. We want to thank Erick Fernando again for
reaching out to us and reporting this issue.
Issues with Temporary Files in Hardinfo2
Hardinfo2 is a utility to obtain hardware
information on Linux, create reports from that data and compare different
systems for benchmarking. Hardinfo2 has been newly packaged for openSUSE
Tumbleweed in October, and the following lines showed up in our systemd
monitoring:
The use of fixed temporary file paths sticks out right away, so we created
bsc#1231839 to handle the
issues resulting from this. By default, kernel protections like
protected_symlinks prevent more severe issues like overwriting system files,
which would lead to denial-of-service. Even with these protection measures, a
local user can pre-create these files and Hardinfo2 will then use the attacker
controlled data found in them, causing integrity violation.
Furthermore this logic causes information leaks. The data from /proc/ioports
is made world-readable via the temporary file /tmp/hardinfo2_ioports. By
default this information is already public in /proc on openSUSE. But it seems
on some systems this was not the case, because Hardinfo2 performs these steps
to allow unprivileged processes to access that data in /tmp. Another
information leak is the chmod a+r operation for
/sys/firmware/dmi/tables/*. The permissions of pseudo files should not be
altered in a drive-by fashion by system services this way.
We reported the issues to upstream, which quickly worked on improvements in
these areas. The shell code has been moved into a proper script named
hwinfo2_fetch_sysdata. The problematic files in /tmp are now placed
into a dedicated directory in /run/hardinfo2. Users that want to use
hardinfo2 now need to be a member of a newly introduced “hardinfo2” group
to be able to access the data placed into this directory. The permissions
of files in /sys are no longer changed.
Upstream created a new release 2.2.1 containing the changes. We did not
request a CVE for these issues, since the biggest impact they can have by
default is integrity violation of Hardinfo2 itself.
Aeon-Check Encryption Key in Fixed Temporary File (CVE-2024-49506)
Aeon-Check is a small utility
used in openSUSE Aeon. Currently it consists
only of a simple bash script invoked via a systemd unit. This script can
detect a bug in the TPM-based LUKS disk encryption setup and fix it. To this
end, an additional LUKS key slot is temporarily added to the root LUKS device:
keyfile=/tmp/aeon-check-keyfile
dd bs=512 count=4 if=/dev/urandom of=${keyfile}iflag=fullblock
chmod 400 ${keyfile}
<snip>
# Writing keyfile to slot 31 (end of the LUKS2 space) to avoid clashes with any customisation/extra keys
cryptsetup luksAddKey --token-only--batch-mode--new-key-slot=31 ${rootdev}${keyfile}
The temporary file used to store the ephemeral LUKS key has a fixed filename
in /tmp. Fortunately the script has the errexit option set; combined with
the protected_regular and protected_symlinks kernel features, no unsafe use
of an already existing file in that path will succeed. Without the kernel
protection, though, another local user could pre-create this file, and
intercept or stage the data used as temporary LUKS key. Even then the chances
for exploitation are small, since this systemd service typically only runs
once during boot, and the time window during which the temporary LUKS key is
valid is short.
Since LUKS encryption is a sensitive area, we still decided to assign a CVE for
the issue. We handled the problem in
bsc#1228861, and a simple
bugfix has been made by the author of the script to use mktemp for safe
creation of the temporary file holding the LUKS key data.
SDDM Follow-Up Review of D-Bus Interface
The openSUSE package for the SDDM display
manager has been forked for the openSUSE
Kalpa flavour. This made a new
D-Bus service whitelisting necessary, which was requested in
bsc#1232647. The
sddm-kalpa package is a Wayland-only version of SDDM, but the sources used in
the package are the same as for regular SDDM.
We still used this opportunity to take a fresh look at the situation in SDDM.
The D-Bus service shipped with it is practically only a skeleton without
implementation. Only a single D-Bus method
SwitchToGreeter()
is implemented. There is no Polkit authorization, which means that any user
can trigger the logic to switch to the greeter. While this situation is not
ideal, it is not critical. Therefore we accepted the new package.
Libcgroup Revisited
Libcgroup is a library and set of
utilities for using control groups on Linux systems. These days systemd is
taking care of this job and, since libcgroup upstream was unmaintained, the
package was dropped from openSUSE in 2018. We received a request to
reintroduce libcgroup in bsc#1231381.
Upstream is active again and there seem to exist some use cases for the package.
Our team was involved because the package contains a setgid binary and a PAM
module. We also had a look at the main daemon cgrulesengd, which is running
as root. At startup, the daemon iterates over all running processes in
/proc and assigns them to control groups according to configuration. Then a
netlink socket is set up to obtain events from the kernel about newly created
processes and exec() events. These new processes will also be placed into
control groups based on configuration.
The approach taken by the daemon is subject to race conditions by design,
which is also kind of
documented
in the upstream repository. Entries in /proc/<pid> can disappear or change
security scope e.g. when setuid-root binaries are involved. The configuration
is matched to processes based on their name as found in /proc/<pid>/status
and the process’ effective uid and gid. We can imagine that a dedicated
local attacker will be able to have the libcgroup daemon wrongly assign an
unprivileged process to a control group destined only for privileged processes
e.g. by exploiting race conditions and using setuid-root binaries like sudo.
Since this is by design, we did not approach upstream about this possibility.
Users of the package should be aware that this could result in local DoS
attack vectors, though.
The setgid program cgexec found in the package is a simple program
that only forwards an IPC request to the libcgroup daemon, asking it to mark
the calling process as “sticky”. The binary requires special group permissions
to be allowed to connect to the UNIX domain socket of the libcgroup daemon.
The extra privileges are dropped right after connecting to the socket. The
socket is also closed right after sending the request. So escalating group
privileges, leaking the socket file descriptor or otherwise influencing the
IPC communication done by cgexec is not a concern.
The PAM module shipped with the package only implements a PAM session type
hook. It calls into the libcgroup library to assign the calling process to an
appropriate control group, thereby placing new sessions into control groups
according to configuration.
Supergfxctl D-Bus Service
Supergfxctl is a D-Bus daemon
that takes care of low level kernel settings in NVIDIA hybrid GPU systems. The
software has been newly packaged in November and we’ve been asked to whitelist
it in bsc#1232776.
There are some worries with this daemon, mostly with regards to local
denial-of-service attack surface. For example there is some racy logic in the
daemon that looks up and kills all processes that have /dev/nvidia0 open.
The D-Bus methods allow to completely control the daemon’s configuration and
are by default accessible to all members of the sudo, users, adm and
wheel groups. This selection of groups is rather broad and surely targeted
towards maximum compatibility with various Linux distributions. It is unlucky,
because there is a possibly large range of users that are allowed to control
the supergfxctl daemon this way.
To make the new service acceptable for openSUSE we asked the packager to limit
access to the D-Bus service to members of the video group instead. Users
that are in the video group have increased privileges with regards to
accessing the video hardware in the system, thus it is a better match for
supergfxctl than just the users group, for example. An even better approach
would be to add Polkit authentication in this D-Bus service, but this is
something that would require larger efforts by upstream and is not currently
in sight.
Systemd v257 Polkit for Varlink IPC
We routinely review additions to the D-Bus and Polkit interfaces in new
systemd releases. This time we have been asked
to check a few new Polkit actions in systemd-containerd, systemd-homed,
systemd-networkd, and systemd-resolved. Interestingly these daemons have
all been migrated from using D-Bus to using Varlink
for Inter-Process-Communication (IPC).
In our experience, the code quality of systemd components is generally high.
These additions were no different. All new Polkit actions are limited to
auth_admin authorization, thus no additional attack surface is made
available to unprivileged local users.
At first sight the switch to Varlink doesn’t change much security-wise:
there are still individual methods in a service that can be invoked by clients
and some or all of them can be protected by Polkit authentication. The switch
to Varlink requires new glue code for the authorization against Polkit,
however. Thus we looked deeper into how this is done in systemd.
When using D-Bus the
SystemBusName
Polkit subject is used, which identifies a client process by its D-Bus sender
address. This way polkitd can securely identify the credentials of the
client process by asking the dbus-daemon about the credentials of the
owner of the UNIX domain socket used by the client to connect to D-Bus.
With Varlink this is no longer possible. Instead the
UnixProcess
subject is used to identify the client. This made us a bit nervous at first,
because the UnixProcess subject is deprecated and often used insecurely. The
problem here is that polkitd needs to use racy logic to lookup the process
by PID in the /proc file system and extract its credentials. Former SUSE
security team member Sebastian Krahmer discovered this in
2014, and it
affected a lot of programs that implemented Polkit actions using this subject. The
use of this subject in systemd to authenticate Varlink methods is robust,
though. The client’s credentials are obtained from the UNIX domain socket
underlying the Varlink connection, and thus via the kernel. Also a
pidfd can be passed
to Polkit nowadays, which allows polkitd to operate in a race-free fashion
on the client process.
As the Polkit glue code turned out all right we accepted the changes and
whitelisted the additions in systemd v257.
Miscellaneous
The following reviews didn’t yield much of interest, so we’re just providing a
short listing here for reference:
GNOME Remote Desktop follow-up review (bsc#1230406).
Last time we looked into GNOME Remote Desktop, we found a couple of issues in
its D-Bus implementation.
Another D-Bus service “org.gnome.RemoteDesktop.Configuration.service” has been
added in the meantime and we have been asked to take a look. The new service is
rather small and all of its methods are protected by a single Polkit
action “org.gnome.remotedesktop.configure-system-daemon”, which requires
Polkit auth_admin authentication. So there shouldn’t be additional attack
surface for local non-privileged users in the system. Overall the complexity
of GNOME in this area continues to grow, though, and it is a challenge to
review it fully without being an expert in GNOME and the remote desktop
protocols.
Additional D-Bus and Polkit features in the UPower Daemon
(bsc#1232835). This
just adds a boolean switch to control whether a battery charging threshold
should be active or not. It is allowed for users in a local session without
authentication.
Added “memoryinformation” D-Bus Method in kinfocenter6 (bsc#1231659).
Our packager backported this feature from a newer upstream version. This new
action allows users in a local session to obtain the output of dmidecode
--type 17, which contains some low-level information about physical RAM in
the system. The implementation of this is straight-forward and we had no
worries accepting this change.
Conclusion
We hope that with this post we have been able to give you some additional
insights into our daily review work for openSUSE and SUSE products. Feel free
to reach out to us if you have any questions about the content discussed in
this article. We expect the winter issue of the spotlight series to be
available in about three months from now.
Tras un parón debido al salto de Qt5/KF5 a Qt6/KF6 que realizó la Comunidad KDE hace ya más de seis meses decidí retomar esta sección aunque renombrándola ya que en ella solo hablaré de Plasmoides para Plasma 6. Así que, visualiza la Luna en tu escritorio gracias a Luna 3, un widget que muestra las fases de nuestra hermana de viaje alrededor del Sol.
Visualiza la Luna en tu escritorio, Luna 3 – Plasmoides para Plasma 6 (12)
Como he comentado en otras ocasiones, de plasmoides tenemos de todo tipo funcionales, de configuración, de comportamiento, de decoración o, como no podía ser de otra forma, de información sobre nuestro sistema como puede ser el uso de disco duro, o de memoria RAM, la temperatura o la carga de uso de nuestras CPUs.
Así que espero que le deis la bienvenida a un plasmoide llamado Luna 3, una creación de Samuel Jimenez que nos ofrece la visión de la Luna en nuestro fondo de escritorio, pudiendo configurar la imagen que queremos mostrar, desde una simple luna amarilla hasta una que muestra sus mares, o el tipo de sombra generada por nuestro planeta.
Y como siempre digo, si os gusta el plasmoide podéis «pagarlo» de muchas formas en la página de KDE Store, que estoy seguro que el desarrollador lo agradecerá: puntúale positivamente, hazle un comentario en la página o realiza una donación. Ayudar al desarrollo del Software Libre también se hace simplemente dando las gracias, ayuda mucho más de lo que os podéis imaginar, recordad la campaña I love Free Software Day de la Free Software Foundation donde se nos recordaba esta forma tan sencilla de colaborar con el gran proyecto del Software Libre y que en el blog dedicamos un artículo.
Para los no iniciados en el blog, quizás la palabra plasmoide le suene un poco rara pero no es mas que el nombre que reciben los widgets para el escritorio Plasma de KDE.
En otras palabras, los plasmoides no son más que pequeñas aplicaciones que puestas sobre el escritorio o sobre una de las barras de tareas del mismo aumentan las funcionalidades del mismo o simplemente lo decoran.
El 7 de diciembre de 2004 se publicaba la versión 1.0 del cliente de correo thunderbird
Thunderbird cumple hoy 20. Un hito tan grande invita a la reflexión sobre el pasado y la emoción para el futuro. Durante dos décadas, Thunderbird ha sido más que una aplicación de correo electrónico: ha sido un compañero firme para millones de usuarios, ofreciendo comunicación, productividad y privacidad.
Esta es una traducción/adaptación del artículo original escrito en inglés en su web que puedes encontrar en este enlace:
El viaje de Thunderbird comenzó en 2003, pero la versión 1.0 se lanzó oficialmente el 7 de diciembre de 2004. Comenzó como una rama del Proyecto Mozilla y fue desarrollado para desafiar el status quo, proporcionando una alternativa de código abierto, segura y personalizable a los clientes de correo electrónico privativos .
Lo que comenzó como un proyecto pequeño y humilde pronto se convirtió en la solución de correo electrónico para personas y organizaciones que valoraron el control sobre sus datos.
El camino no siempre ha sido fácil. A lo largo de los años, Thunderbird enfrentó su parte de los desafíos, desde las mareas cambiantes de la tecnología y los competidores de mil millones de dólares que vienen a la escena hasta problemas para financiar el proyecto.
En 2012, Mozilla anunció que el apoyo a Thunderbird terminaría, dejando el proyecto en gran medida para valerse por sí mismo. Increíblemente, un grupo apasionado de desarrolladores, usuarios y seguidores dio un paso al frente y se negó a dejar que se desvaneciera.
Veinte millones de personas continuaron dependiendo de Thunderbird, creyendo en su potencial, reuniéndose detrás de él y transformándolo en un proyecto alimentado por sus usuarios, para sus usuarios.
En 2017, la Fundación Mozilla, que supervisó a Thunderbird junto con un grupo de voluntarios en el Consejo Thunderbird, una vez más contrató a un pequeño equipo de 3 personas para trabajar en el proyecto, respaldando nueva vida en su desarrollo.
Este equipo decidió tomar el asunto en sus propias manos y hacerle saber a los usuarios a través de apelaciones de donaciones que Thunderbird necesitaba su apoyo. El proyecto comenzó a recuperar fuerza e impulso y Thunderbird una vez más volvió a la vida. (Más sobre esta historia se puede encontrar en «La historia del Thunderbird«.
Los últimos años, en particular, han sido fundamentales. La interfaz de usuario de Thunderbird obtuvo un nueva renovación estética con el lanzamiento de Supernova 115 en 2023.
El lanzamiento de Nebula de 2024 fijó gran parte del código de back-end y la deuda técnica que afectaba a la innovación y el desarrollo más rápidos.
La primera aplicación de Android se lanzó, extendiendo Thunderbird a usuarios móviles y abriendo un nuevo capítulo en su historia. La introducción de Thunderbird Pro Services, incluidas herramientas como el intercambio de archivos y la reserva de citas, señala cómo se está expandiendo el proyecto para convertirse en una suite de productividad integral.
Y con eso, Thunderbird se está preparando para la próxima era de crecimiento y relevancia.
En aquellos primeros días, antes de que se llamara Thunderbird, el proyecto se denominó brevemente «Minotauro». Sin embargo, ese nombre no cuajó, y el equipo optó por algo más dinámico y apropiado para su visión.
¡Thunderbird está disponible en más de 50 idiomas!
Fue publicado el mismo año que Gmail. Thunderbird y Gmail se lanzaron en 2004. Mientras Gmail revolucionó el correo electrónico basado en la web, Thunderbird estaba capacitando a los usuarios para administrar su correo electrónico de manera local con control y personalización total y utilizando software libre.
Thunderbird se basa completamente en donaciones de usuarios para financiar su desarrollo. Sorprendentemente, menos del 3% de los usuarios donan, pero su generosidad es lo que mantiene el proyecto vivo e independiente para los otros 97% de los usuarios.
El recientemente lanzado Thunderbird para Android es en realidad la evolución del proyecto de correo K-9, que fue adquirido por Thunderbird en 2022.
Fue más inteligente trabajar con un cliente existente que compartía los mismos valores de código abierto, respetando al usuario y ofreciendo personalización y opciones de funciones enriquecidas.
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