Zack’s Kernel News
Zack’s Kernel News
Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.
Recently, the kernel.org servers were cracked by attackers who were able to gain root-level access. The attackers then inserted trojan horses into the source releases for certain Linux kernel release candidates (-rc releases). This attack caused a lot of work for the kernel. org system administrators and resulted in a number of discussion threads on the linux-kernel mailing list, considering ways to avoid similar security compromises in the future.
In one thread, Junio C Hamano, the Git maintainer, asked the kernel folks if there were any special Git features they wanted, that might increase the security of a Git archive that involved many contributors (e.g., the Linux kernel). He suggested providing the ability to cryptographically sign all pushes, as well as having Git produce more output on certain types of failure modes. Linus Torvalds replied, saying he liked the idea of increased verbosity; but, about cryptographic signatures, he said:
"I realize that cryptographic signatures sound very important right now, but in the end, *real* trust comes from people, not from signatures. Realistically, I checked a few signatures this time around due to the kernel.org issues, but at the same time, the thing that made me trust most of it was just looking at commits and the email messages. The unconscious and non-cryptographic 'signature' of a person acting like you expect a person to act."
"Technical measures can be subverted, and I think we should also think about the social side. Every time somebody mentions a signature,I want to also mention 'human readability', because I think that matters as much, if not more."
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.