LWN.net

Greg Kroah-Hartman has released stable kernels 4.4.2 and 3.14.61. Both of them contain important fixes.

Arch Linux has updated glibc (multiple vulnerabilities).CentOS has updated 389-ds-base(C7: denial of service), firefox (C7; C6; C5: three vulnerabilities), glibc (C7: two vulnerabilities), glibc (C6: code execution), kernel (C7: two vulnerabilities), polkit (C7: privilege escalation), and sos (C7: information disclosure).Debian-LTS has updated eglibc(two vulnerabilities), gtk+2.0 (code execution), and wordpress (two vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated asterisk (F23; F22: filedescriptor exhaustion), ecryptfs-utils (F23; F22:privilege escalation), firefox (F22:multiple vulnerabilities), glibc (F23: codeexecution), glibc (F22: multiplevulnerabilities), mingw-curl (F23;F22: authentication bypass),mingw-libpng (F23; F22: denial of service), mingw-libxml2(F23; F22:multiple vulnerabilities), mingw-pcre (F23; F22:multiple vulnerabilities), nghttp2 (F23:denial of service), and springframework-social (F23: cross-site request forgery).Gentoo has updated glibc (multiple vulnerabilities).openSUSE has updated Chromium(SPH for SLE12: multiple vulnerabilities), claws-mail (Leap42.1, 13.2; 13.1: code execution), firefox (Leap42.1, 13.2: same-originrestriction bypass), glibc (Leap42.1:multiple vulnerabilities), libnettle (Leap42.1; 13.2; 13.1:improper cryptographic calculations), socat (Leap42.1, 13.2; 13.1: cipher-downgrade attacks), thunderbird (Leap42.1, 13.2: code execution),thunderbird (13.1: multiplevulnerabilities), and vlc (Leap42.1: code execution).Oracle has updated 389-ds-base(OL7: denial of service), firefox (OL7; OL6; OL5: three vulnerabilities), glibc (OL7: two vulnerabilities), glibc (OL6: code execution), kernel (OL7: multiple vulnerabilities), polkit (OL7: privilege escalation), and sos (OL7: information disclosure).Red Hat has updated chromium-browser (RHEL6: multiplevulnerabilities), glibc (RHEL6.2, 6.4, 6.5,6.6, 7.1: code execution), glibc (RHEL7:two vulnerabilities), glibc (RHEL6: codeexecution), and kernel-rt (RHEMRG2.5: two vulnerabilities).Scientific Linux has updated 389-ds-base (SL7: denial of service), firefox (SL5,6,7: three vulnerabilities), glibc (SL7: two vulnerabilities), glibc (SL6: code execution), kernel (SL7: two vulnerabilities), polkit (SL7: privilege escalation), and sos (SL7: information disclosure).SUSE has updated glibc (SLE12-SP1; SLE12; SLE11-SP3,SP4; SLE11-SP2: multiple vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated eglibc, glibc(code execution), graphite2 (15.10, 14.04:multiple vulnerabilities), libreoffice(code execution), and xdelta3 (15.10,14.04: code execution).

Vulkan is a new graphics APIspecification, seemingly meant to supersede OpenGL. Collabora has announcedthe availability of the 1.0 specification — and that the Wayland compositoralready supports it. "To provide the best possible base for fluidmodern user interfaces, Collabora have worked extensively on the Waylandwindow system, the underlying Kernel Mode Setting drivers and atomicmodesetting, and also the EGL specifications and implementations. We areproud to continue this work with Vulkan." Intel has announcedan open-source Vulkan driver for its hardware as well.

Debian has updated eglibc (multiple vulnerabilities), glibc (multiple vulnerabilities), graphite2 (three vulnerabilities), and libgcrypt11 (key leak).Debian-LTS has updated xdelta3 (code execution).Red Hat has updated 389-ds-base(RHEL7: denial of service), firefox(RHEL5,6,7: three vulnerabilities), kernel(RHEL7: two vulnerabilities), kernel-rt(RHEL7: two vulnerabilities), polkit(RHEL7: denial of service), and sos (RHEL7:information disclosure).SUSE has updated qemu (SLE12-SP1:two vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated eog (codeexecution), gtk+2.0, gtk+3.0 (codeexecution), libgcrypt11, libgcrypt20 (keyleak), nettle (15.10, 14.04: impropercryptographic calculations), and samba(regression in previous update).

The Google Online Security Blog disclosesa security issue in the GNU C library; a fix, workarounds, and aproof-of-concept exploit are all provided. "The glibc DNS client side resolver is vulnerableto a stack-based buffer overflow when the getaddrinfo() library function isused. Software using this function may be exploited withattacker-controlled domain names, attacker-controlled DNS servers, orthrough a man-in-the-middle attack."See also: the glibcadvisory for this issue.

Opensource.com coversa linux.conf.au talk by Paris Buttfield-Addison and Jon Manning ofSecret Lab. "Secret Lab participates in hackathons to subtly subvert that mission by making interesting games based on data. They don't even care if anyone ever plays the game again. But they've won quite a few national awards along the way.In particular, they've done so through participation in several GovHack events, which are Australia/New Zealand hackathons built around government data sources."

Arch Linux has updated firefox (same-origin restriction bypass) and nghttp2 (denial of service).Debian has updated iceweasel (denial of service), postgresql-9.1 (three vulnerabilities), and postgresql-9.4 (two vulnerabilities).Debian-LTS has updated chrony (packet modification) and cpio (out-of-bounds write).Fedora has updated firefox (F23:denial of service), krb5 (F22: threevulnerabilities), mingw-gnutls (F23:improper cryptographic calculations), mingw-nettle (F23: improper cryptographiccalculations), nodejs (F23: two vulnerabilities), php (F23; F22: multiple vulnerabilities), and wordpress (F23; F22: two vulnerabilities).

Mark Wielaard writesabout some of the many new compiler warnings provided by the GCC6release. "My favorite is still -Wmisleading-indentation. But thereare many more that have found various bugs. Not all of them are enabled bydefault, but it makes sense to enable as many as possible when writing newcode."

"It's Valentine's day, so here I am, making a valentine for everybodyin the form of the usual rc release," says Linus; that release is 4.5-rc4."So in between romancing your significant other, go out andtest."

In a lengthy blog series (part 1, part 2, and part 3), Matthew Chapman described the process of getting a non-Lenovo battery to charge in his Thinkpad laptop. He reverse-engineered the authorization that real batteries do and changed the code in the embedded controller (EC) on the laptop to allow other batteries to charge. "I look in BIOS to see where these messages are coming from. Both this message and the original unauthorised battery message are displayed by LenovoVideoInitDxe.efi: don’t ask me why this code is in this module rather than somewhere more relevant (may I suggest LenovoAnnoyingBatteryMessageDxe.efi?), but it might have been convenient to put it in the video initialisation module as the message is displayed when the screen is cleared post-POST [Power-on self-test]."(Thanks to Neil Brown.)

On the Maru blog, developer Preetam D’Souza has announced that the Maru project is now open source. Maru is a desktop system running on a smartphone, so that adding a display, keyboard, and mouse to a phone allows the user to run their desktop on the phone—and still be able to use the device as a phone. "I’ve gotta say, the open source community never ceases to amaze me. I’ve had emails from people asking if they can help test Maru on other devices on a Sunday. How many normal people do you know that willingly want to give up their Sundays to help test software? I’ve experienced this helpfulness time and time again, whether it was the speakers at open source conferences so willing to share their knowledge, or the folks on forums who were so keen to help out beginners like me. Maru would never have been possible without that spirit of openness."

Bradley Kuhn started off his linux.conf.au 2016 talk by stating a goalthat, he hoped, he shared with the audience: a world where more (or most)software is free software. The community has one key strategy toward that goal:copyleft licensing. He was there to talk about whether that strategy isworking, and what can be done to make it more effective; the picture hepainted was not entirely rosy, but there is hope if software developers arewilling to make some changes.

Chris Hermansen looks at an early open music format—vinyl LP records—over at Opensource.com. He goes into some of the details of the format and how it is read, as well as a bit about ripping records using Linux. "Ok, so we just figured out that our stylus puts 136 times as much pressure on our records as our car puts on the pavement? That's crazy!!! Why doesn't the stylus completely destroy the record? Those alternate-Earth physicists and engineers are rolling on the floor now, clutching their bellies and gasping for breath... but here is the final straw. Despite the seemingly ridiculous or even impossible nature of the whole ensemble of components, a well-recorded vinyl LP played back with a decent turntable, tonearm, and cartridge sounds wonderful."

Debian has updated libgcrypt20(key leak) and nginx (three vulnerabilities).Debian-LTS has updated eglibc(regression in previous security update).Fedora has updated nodejs-is-my-json-valid (F22: denial ofservice) and python-pymongo (F23; F22: two vulnerabilities).openSUSE has updated cacti (42.1; 13.2; 13.1: multiple vulnerabilities), cacti-spine (13.1: unspecified), and openssl (13.1: cipher downgrade).Slackware has updated mozilla(14.1: unspecified).Ubuntu has updated firefox(15.10, 14.04, 12.04: same-origin restriction bypass) and postgresql-9.1, postgresql-9.3, postgresql-9.4(15.10, 14.04, 12.04: two vulnerabilities).

Arch Linux has updated botan(three vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated firebird (F23:denial of service), firefox (F23: denial ofservice), gsi-openssh (F23: privilegeescalation), and php-PHPMailer (F23;F22: header injection).openSUSE has updated flash-player (13.2; 13.1:multiple vulnerabilities), jasper (13.1: denial of service), andtiff (13.1: multiple vulnerabilities).Red Hat has updated flash-plugin(RHEL5&6: multiple vulnerabilities).SUSE has updated java-1_6_0-ibm (SLE12; SLE11SP2: multiple vulnerabilities) and java-1_7_0-ibm (SLE11SP2: multiple vulnerabilities).

The LWN.net Weekly Edition for February 11, 2016 is available.

Scratching an itch is a recurring theme in presentations at linux.conf.au. As the open-hardware movement gains strength, more and more of these itches relate to the physical world, not just the digital. David Tulloh used his presentation [WebM] on the “Linux Driven Microwave” to discuss how annoying microwave ovens can be and to describe his project to build something less irritating.Click below (subscribers only) for the full report from Neil Brown.

Arch Linux has updated kscreenlocker (restriction bypass).CentOS has updated sos (C6: information leak).Fedora has updated claws-mail(F22: stack-based buffer overflow), imlib2(F22: denial of service), python-pillow(F23: denial of service), and webkitgtk4(F22: multiple vulnerabilities).Mageia has updated ffmpeg(multiple vulnerabilities), flash-player-plugin (multiple vulnerabilities), jasper (denial of service), and nettle (improper cryptographic calculations).openSUSE has updated jasper(13.2: denial of service), krb5 (13.2:three vulnerabilities), and tiff (13.2: three vulnerabilities).Oracle has updated sos (OL6:information leak).Red Hat has updated openstack-swift (RHELOSP7: denial of service) and python-django (RHELOSP7; RHELOSP5 for RHEL7; RHELOSP5 for RHEL6: information disclosure).Scientific Linux has updated sos(SL6: information leak).SUSE has updated flash-player (SLE12-SP1; SLE11-SP4: multiple vulnerabilities) and java-1_7_1-ibm (SLE12-SP1; SLE11-SP4: multiple vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated nginx (15.10,14.04: denial of service).

The SourceForge hosting site has announcedthat it has a new owner (BIZX, LLC, along with Slashdot) and that it willbe getting rid of the controversial DevShare program, which was covered here in 2013. "As of last week,the DevShare program was completely eliminated. The DevShare programdelivered installer bundles as part of the download for participatingprojects. We want to restore our reputation as a trusted home for opensource software, and this was a clear first step towards that. We’re moreinterested in doing the right thing than making extra short-termprofit."

<img class="photo" src="http://lwn.net/images/2016/lca-oven.jpg" alt="[Prototype]">

The LibreOffice 5.1 release is available. "LibreOffice 5.1's user interface has been completelyreorganized, to provide faster and more convenient access to its most usedfeatures. A new menu has been added to each of the applications: Style(Writer), Sheet (Calc) and Slide (Impress and Draw). In addition, severalicons and menu commands have been repositioned based on userpreferences." See thispage for (a little) more information and some videos.

The Obama administration has put out aplan for how it would like to make the net a safer place. There are alot of topics covered here; toward the end it also mentions that "theGovernment will work with organizations such as the Linux Foundation’s CoreInfrastructure Initiative to fund and secure commonly used internet'utilities' such as open-source software, protocols, and standards. Justas our roads and bridges need regular repair and upkeep, so do thetechnical linkages that allow the information superhighway to flow."

"TPM," said Matthew Garrett in his linux.conf.au 2016 talk, stands for "trusted platform module"; it is a tool that is meant to allow a system'sowner to decide which software to trust. Some years ago, there was a lot offear that the TPM would be used, instead, to take that decision away, to allow othersto decide which software would be trusted to run on our systems; for that reason,some called "trusted computing" by the rather less complimentary name"treacherous computing." That scenario didn't come about, though, for anumber of reasons, both technical and social. But we can still use the TPM forits original purpose; Matthew was there to talk about his work to bringabout computing that we can trust.Click below (subscribers only) for the full report from LCA 2016.

Debian has updated qemu (multiplevulnerabilities), qemu (more vulnerabilities), qemu-kvm (multiple vulnerabilities), and wordpress (two vulnerabilities).Debian-LTS has updated gajim (man-in-the-middle).Mageia has updated mbedtls/hiawatha/belle-sip/linphone/pdns (codeexecution), openssl (man-in-the-middle), php (multiple vulnerabilities), privoxy (denial of service), and radicale (authentication bypass).Red Hat has updated sos (RHEL6:information leak).Slackware has updated curl (authentication bypass) and flac (multiple vulnerabilities).SUSE has updated java-1_8_0-ibm(SLE12-SP1: multiple vulnerabilities) and rubygem-rails-html-sanitizer (SES2.1: multiple vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated firefox(regression in previous update).

Wired talkswith John Perry Barlow on the 20th anniversary of his Declaration ofIndependence of Cyberspace. "In the modern era of global NSA surveillance, China’s Great Firewall, and FBI agents trawling the dark Web, it’s easy to write off Barlow’s declaration as early dotcom-era hubris. But on his document’s 20th anniversary, Barlow himself wants to be clear: He stands by his words just as much today as he did when he clicked “send” in 1996."

Arch Linux has updated lib32-libsndfile (multiple vulnerabilities) and libsndfile (multiple vulnerabilities).Debian has updated polarssl (code execution) and tiff (multiple vulnerabilities).Debian-LTS has updated eglibc (multiple vulnerabilities) and linux-2.6 (multiple vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated claws-mail(F23: stack-based buffer overflow), nginx(F22: denial of service), and prosody (F23:insecure handling of dialback keys).Mageia has updated cakephp (denial of service), cgit (three vulnerabilities), curl (authentication bypass), cyrus-imapd (two vulnerabilities), docker/golang (two vulnerabilities), gajim (man-in-the-middle), imlib2 (denial of service), java-1.8.0-openjdk/copy-jdk-configs/lua-lunit/lua-posix (multiple vulnerabilities), krb5 (three vulnerabilities), phpmyadmin/phpseclib (multiple vulnerabilities), and socat (man-in-the-middle).openSUSE has updated curl (Leap42.1; 13.2; 13.1:authentication bypass), mariadb (Leap42.1; 13.2: multiple vulnerabilities), mysql(Leap42.1, 13.2; 13.1: multiple vulnerabilities), nginx (Leap42.1: denial of service), openssl (13.2: man-in-the-middle), php5 (Leap42.1: two vulnerabilities), phpMyAdmin (Leap42.1, 13.2: multiplevulnerabilities), rubygem-actionpack-3_2(13.2: multiple vulnerabilities), rubygem-actionpack-4_2 (Leap42.1: multiplevulnerabilities), rubygem-rails-html-sanitizer (Leap42.1:multiple vulnerabilities), and phpmyadmin(13.1: multiple vulnerabilities).Red Hat has updated openstack-swift (RHELOSP5 for RHEL6; RHELOSP5 for RHEL7; RHELOSP6 for RHEL7: denial ofservice) and python-django(RHELOSP6 for RHEL7: information disclosure).SUSE has updated kernel(SLE11-SP3: multiple vulnerabilities).

The 4.5-rc3 kernel prepatch is out."It's slightly bigger than I'd like, but not excessively so (and notunusually so). Most of the patches are pretty small, although the diff isutterly dominated by the (big) removal a couple of staging rdma driversthat just weren't going anywhere. Those removal patches are 90% of the bulkof the diff."

The CoreOS project has announced version1.0 of its rkt container manager.As part of the release, rkt's command-line interface and on-diskformat have been declared stable. The announcement also highlights anumber of new security features, including "KVM-based containerisolation, SELinux support, TPM integration, image signaturevalidation, and privilege separation" and notes that rkt willrun Docker images.

Arch Linux has updated libbsd (denial of service).Debian has updated krb5(multiple vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated nettle(F23: improper cryptographic calculations), salt (F22: information leak), and webkitgtk4 (F23: multiple vulnerabilities).SUSE has updated MozillaFirefox,MozillaFirefox-branding-SLE, mozilla-nss (SLE12: multiple vulnerabilities) and MozillaFirefox,MozillaFirefox-branding-SLED, mozilla-nss (SLE11: multiple vulnerabilities).

Over at Linux.com, Eric Brown looks at the newly announced Ubuntu Touch tablet. The hardware: "The Aquaris M10 is equipped with a 64-bit, quad-core, Cortex-A53 MediaTek MT8163A system-on-chip clocked to 1.5GHz, along with a high-powered ARM Mali-T720 MP2 GPU. The tablet ships with 2GB of RAM, 16GB flash, and a microSD slot." It is said to have 1920x1200 resolution and an 8 megapixel camera capable of HD recording. The interface will change to take advantage of larger displays and additional input devices (e.g. keyboard, mouse)."It appears that the upcoming Ubuntu 16.04 “Xenial Xerus” LTS release due in April will be the first true convergence release. According to PC World, it will still be optional, however, with a traditional Unity 7 build with X.org available alongside the newly converged Unity 8 with the new Mir display server. The new tablet, and Unity 8, will feature Ubuntu Touch’s Scopes interface, which presents frequently used content and services as an alternative to traditional apps.In addition to automatically changing the interface in response to new screens and input devices, Ubuntu is also providing convergence on the application development level. Developers are already developing single apps that can automatically morph into desktop, phone, and tablet formats."

Debian-LTS has updated openjdk-6 (multiple vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated nodejs-is-my-json-valid (F23: denial ofservice), phpmyadmin (F23: multiple vulnerabilities), and prosody (F22: insecure key handling).Gentoo has updated qemu (multiple vulnerabilities).Slackware has updated mozilla(unspecified), mplayer (file contentsleak), openssl (cipher downgrade), and php (three vulnerabilities).

The LWN.net Weekly Edition for February 4, 2016 is available.

Arch Linux has updated lib32-nettle (improper cryptographic calculations) and nettle (improper cryptographic calculations).Debian has updated openjdk-6 (multiple vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated openstack-heat(F23: denial of service) and openstack-swift (F23: denial of service).openSUSE has updated kernel(13.2: multiple vulnerabilities).Red Hat has updated kernel(RHEL7.1: multiple vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated qemu, qemu-kvm(15.10, 14.04, 12.04: multiple vulnerabilities).

Michael Catanzaro describesthe sad state of WebKit security on Linux distributions and thechallenges of security support for such a complex package in general."We regularly receive bug reports from users with very old versionsof WebKit, who trust their distributors to handle security for them andmight not even realize they are running ancient, unsafe versions ofWebKit. I strongly recommend using a distribution that releases WebKitGTK+updates shortly after they’re released upstream. That is currently onlyArch and Fedora. (You can also safely use WebKitGTK+ in Debian testing —except during its long freeze periods — and Debian unstable, and maybe alsoin openSUSE Tumbleweed. Just be aware that the stable releases of thesedistributions are currently not receiving our security updates.)"Lots of information here, worth a read for anybody interested in the topic.

Arch Linux has updated curl (authentication bypass), lib32-curl (authentication bypass), python-django (permission bypass), and python2-django: permission bypass).Fedora has updated bind (F22: twodenial of service flaws), chrony (F22:packet modification), curl (F22:authentication bypass), firefox (F22:multiple vulnerabilities), and qemu (F22: multiple vulnerabilities).openSUSE has updated firefox(13.1: multiple vulnerabilities), privoxy (Leap42.1, 13.2; 13.1: two denial of service flaws),seamonkey (Leap42.1, 13.2; 13.1: multiple vulnerabilities), firefox (Leap42.1, 13.2: multiplevulnerabilities), and xulrunner (Leap42.1:code execution).Red Hat has updated java-1.6.0-ibm (RHEL5,6: multiplevulnerabilities), java-1.7.0-ibm (RHEL5:multiple vulnerabilities), java-1.7.1-ibm(RHEL6,7: multiple vulnerabilities), java-1.8.0-ibm (RHEL7: multiple vulnerabilities), and redis (RHELOSP7-OT; RHELOSP7; RHELOSP6: denial of service).Ubuntu has updated kernel (15.10; 15.04;14.04; 12.04: multiple vulnerabilities), linux-lts-trusty (12.04: multiplevulnerabilities), linux-lts-utopic (14.04:multiple vulnerabilities), linux-lts-vivid(14.04: multiple vulnerabilities), linux-lts-wily (14.04: multiplevulnerabilities), linux-raspi2 (15.10:multiple vulnerabilities), linux-ti-omap4(12.04: multiple vulnerabilities), openjdk-6 (12.04: multiple vulnerabilities),and openjdk-7 (15.10, 15.04, 14.04: multiple vulnerabilities).

The Black Forestfire destroyed over 500 Colorado houses in June 2013; one of thosebelonged to longtime Debian developer Bdale Garbee. As he reported duringhis talk at the 2016 linux.conf.au Multimedia and Musicminiconf, the house has been redesigned and rebuilt and life is generally better now. Part of the rebuildingprocess included the incorporation of a whole-house audio system;naturally, Bdale took a unique approach to that task. His talk showed whatcan be done when one starts from scratch — and doesn't mind designing acircuit board along the way.

ThisRed Hat blog post celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of the firstSELinux release. "With the question of open source security longbehind us, we are now focused on providing an even more flexible securitymodel through SELinux. With the rise of composite, distributed applicationsthat can span hundreds of physical and virtual machines as well asdisparate cloud instances and Linux container deployments, one-off usage ofSELinux is not enough. Instead, we are focused on providing “defense indepth” for modern computing scenarios, effectively building and deployingSELinux policies at each level of the datacenter."

CentOS has updated qemu-kvm (C7; C6: code execution).Debian has updated freetype (denial of service), privoxy (two denial of service flaws), prosody (insecure handling of dialback keys), radicale (two vulnerabilities), and rails (multiple vulnerabilities).Debian-LTS has updated gosa (code injection), mysql-5.5 (multiple vulnerabilities), phpmyadmin (two vulnerabilities), prosody (two vulnerabilities), and tiff (multiple vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated curl (F23:authentication bypass), firefox (F23:multiple vulnerabilities), gsi-openssh(F22: multiple vulnerabilities), imlib2(F23: denial of service), kernel (F23; F22:multiple vulnerabilities), krb5 (F23: threevulnerabilities), moodle (F23; F22: two vulnerabilities), nginx (F23: multiple vulnerabilities), ntp (F23: multiple vulnerabilities), openssl (F23: two vulnerabilities), phpMyAdmin (F22: multiple vulnerabilities),privoxy (F23; F22: two denial of service flaws), webkitgtk4 (F22: multiple vulnerabilities),and xen (F22: multiple vulnerabilities).Gentoo has updated openssl (multiple vulnerabilities).openSUSE has updated ecryptfs-utils (Leap42.1; 13.1: two vulnerabilities), giflib (Leap42.1: heap-based buffer overflow),and kernel (13.1: multiple vulnerabilities).

The 4.5-rc2 kernel prepatch is out. Linussays things aren't going so slowly anymore: "As late as Friday, I was planning on talking about how nice it is tosee this new trend of tiny rc2 releases, because there really hadn'tbeen very many pull requests at all.But it turns out the pull requests were just heavily skewed to the endof the week, and 4.5-rc2 isn't particularly small after all. It prettymuch doubled over the weekend." Still, he seems to think thatthings are working well enough.

The 4.4.1,4.3.5, and4.1.17 stable kernel updates are out.These contain a relatively large number of changes as Greg Kroah-Hartmancontinues to work through the patch backlog.

The KDE neon project — which arguablycould be seen as a replacement for the Kubuntu distribution — has been announcedat FOSDEM. "More than ever people expect a stable desktop with cutting-edge features, all in a package which is easy to use and ready to make their own.KDE Neon is the intersection of these needs using a stable Ubuntu long-term release as its core, packaging the hottest software fresh from the KDE Community ovens. Compute knowing you have a solid foundation and enjoy the features you experience in the world's most customisable desktop."

Greg Kroah-Hartman has released stable kernels 3.14.60 and 3.10.96, each containing importantupdates throughout the tree.

Arch Linux has updated lib32-openssl (multiple vulnerabilities) and openssl (multiple vulnerabilities).Debian has updated mysql-5.5(multiple vulnerabilities).Fedora has updated gsi-openssh (F23: multiple vulnerabilities), krb5 (F23: information leak), and xen (F23: multiple vulnerabilities).Mageia has updated chromium-browser-stable (M5: multiple vulnerabilities), chrony (M5: packet modification), firefox (M5: code execution), lxc (M5: directory traversal), ntp (M5: multiple vulnerabilities), owncloud (M5: multiple vulnerabilities), and srtp (M5: denial of service).openSUSE has updated java-1_7_0-openjdk (Leap 42.1: multiple vulnerabilities) and kernel (Leap 42.1: multiple vulnerabilities).Oracle has updated qemu-kvm (O7; O6:code execution).Red Hat has updated qemu-kvm (RHEL6; RHEL7:code execution)and qemu-kvm-rhev (RHEL7 OSP5; RHEL6 OSP5; RHEL7 OSP7; RHEL7 OSP6: multiple vulnerabilities).Scientific Linux has updated qemu-kvm (SL6; SL7:code execution).Ubuntu has updated openssl(15.10: information leak).

Wired reports on a talk at the USENIX Enigma conference by Rob Joyce of the US National Security Agency (NSA). Joyce is the head of the NSA's Tailored Access Operations, which is tasked with breaking into the systems of adversaries and sometimes allies. He spoke about ways to thwart the NSA and other nation-state-level attackers. "'We put the time in …to know [that network] better than the people who designed it and the people who are securing it,' he said. 'You know the technologies you intended to use in that network. We know the technologies that are actually in use in that network. Subtle difference. You'd be surprised about the things that are running on a network vs. the things that you think are supposed to be there.'"

Arch Linux has updated nginx(three denial of service flaws).Debian has updated iceweasel(three vulnerabilities) and openjdk-7(multiple vulnerabilities).openSUSE has updated chromium(13.1: multiple vulnerabilities), java-1_7_0-openjdk (13.2: multiple vulnerabilities),java-1_8_0-openjdk (42.1; 13.2: multiple vulnerabilities), java7 (13.1: multiple vulnerabilities), and openldap2 (42.1: two vulnerabilities).Oracle has updated bind (OL7; OL6; OL5: denial of service), bind97 (OL5: denial of service), andfirefox (OL7; OL6; OL5: twocode execution flaws).Red Hat has updated bind (RHEL6.4, 6.5: four denial of serviceflaws, including one from 2014) and bind(RHEL6.6: three denial of service flaws).Scientific Linux has updated bind(denial of service), bind97 (SL5: denial ofservice), and firefox (two code execution flaws).SUSE has updated java-1_7_0-openjdk (SLE12; SLE11:multiple vulnerabilities) and openldap2 (Studio Onsite 1.3: two vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated curl(authentication bypass) and oxide-qt(15.10, 15.04, 14.04: multiple vulnerabilities).

The LWN.net Weekly Edition for January 28, 2016 is available.

The Linux Foundation's board ofdirectors is not usually a hotbed of controversy; for the most part it does its work in the background, quietlygoing about the business of directing the non-profit organization. Inmid-January that all changed. The bylaws that governed howsome at-large board seats were allocated were changed, which caused quitean uproar within the Linux world. While there is speculation about the motive forthe change—as well as an official statement of sorts—it certainly seemslike the whole thing could have been handled a lot better.Subscribers can click below for the full story from this week's edition.

CentOS has updated bind (C7; C6; C5: denial of service), bind97 (C5: denial of service), and firefox (C7; C6; C5: code execution).Debian has updated chromium-browser (multiple vulnerabilities), curl (authentication bypass), and virtualbox (multiple vulnerabilities).Debian-LTS has updated nginx (denial of service), radicale (multiple vulnerabilities), and tiff (code execution).Fedora has updated cgit (F23:three vulnerabilities), kernel (F23:multiple vulnerabilities), and perl-PathTools (F22: returns untainted strings).Gentoo has updated adobe-flash (multiple vulnerabilities), opensmtpd (multiple vulnerabilities), and webkit-gtk (multiple vulnerabilities).openSUSE has updated Chromium (SPH SLE12; Leap42.1, 13.2: multiple vulnerabilities), openldap (13.1: two vulnerabilities), php5 (13.2: three vulnerabilities), and tiff (Leap42.1: denial of service).Oracle has updated java-1.6.0-openjdk (OL7; OL6; OL5: multiple vulnerabilities).Red Hat has updated bind(RHEL5,6,7: denial of service), bind97(RHEL5: denial of service), chromium-browser (RHEL6: multiplevulnerabilities), firefox (RHEL5,6,7: code execution), and RHOSE (multiple vulnerabilities).Scientific Linux has updated java-1.6.0-openjdk (SL5,6,7: multiple vulnerabilities).SUSE has updated java-1_8_0-openjdk (SLE12-SP1: multiple vulnerabilities).Ubuntu has updated firefox (multiple vulnerabilities).

Firefox 44.0 has been released. With this version Firefox can getpush notifications from your favorite sites. This release alsofeatures improved warning pages for certificate errors and untrustedconnections, H.264 is enabled if the system decoder is available, ifMP4/H.264 are not supported WebM/VP9 video support is enabled, the brotlicompression format via HTTPS content-encoding is supported, and more. Seethe release notes fordetails.

The Linux Test Project test suite stable release for January 2016 isavailable. There were 191 patches by 29 authors merged since the previousrelease. Some notable changes include rewritten and new cgroup tests forcpuacct and pids controllers, rewritten basic cgroup functional and stresstests, new userns07 test for user namespaces, new syscall tests, and more.