Extended Support for Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04

Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 are Long Term Support (LTS) versions, both of which have already hit End of Life (14.04 in 2019 and 16.04 in 2021). The problem is, however, a large number of enterprise businesses are still making use of those versions of the open source platform. While you can upgrade to the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, that's not always an option for some use cases.

Because of this, Canonical (https://canonical.com/) has extended their support for both versions of Ubuntu to bring those releases in line with the new 10-year support period that was given to both 18.04 and 20.04 (both of which are also LTS releases).

Of course, there's a caveat: The additional support for 14.04 and 16.04 comes by way of Extended Support Maintenance, which requires an active Ubuntu Advantage subscription http://(https://ubuntu.com/advantage). For Ubuntu home users, this subscription is free (for up to three devices). For businesses, however, the subscription comes with a price.

For those businesses who need to extend the life of Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04, the cost will depend on the type of service (Essential, Standard, or Advanced). Prices range from $25.00 for the Essential package on a desktop to $1,500 for the Advanced package on a physical server.

Gnome 41 Adds Desktop Improvements

Gnome has been evolving at a breakneck pace. And no recent release proved that more than Gnome 40, where the entire workflow was reconfigured and reworked. For those that have experienced the shift that was brought about by Gnome 40, every update since has been nothing more than minor tweaks.

While Gnome 41 isn't doing a major overhaul, it still adds some important improvements to the desktop.

Such improvements include a revamped Gnome Software that brings to life a much livelier landing page and updated app categories. New-to-Linux users should find using Gnome Software much easier for locating the software they need to install. Another feature is the ability to adjust power profiles directly from the Status menu. Enable the Power Saver profile when you're running on battery or use the Balanced profile when you need more juice for games or resource-intensive applications.

All of the default Gnome apps (Calendar, Calls, Connections, Files, and Music) have received some much-needed tweaking (either in functionality or appearance) ,and the Gnome Settings tool now has a new Multitasking section, where you can configure Hot Corners, Active Screen, and Workspaces.

Although Gnome 41 has yet to hit the repositories for the majority of Linux distributions that use the desktop, you can always use a rolling release distribution like Arch Linux. The first major distribution to ship with Gnome 41 will most likely be Fedora 35. For those that can't wait, you can always download the Gnome OS 41 ISO (https://os.gnome.org/download/41.beta/gnome_os_installer_41.beta.iso) or a Fedora Rawhide image (https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Workstation/x86_64/iso/).

Black Lotus Labs Confirms Flaw in Windows Subsystem for Linux

Lumen Technologies' threat intelligence arm has verified that hackers can use Linux binary files as a loader designed to inject malicious files into a Windows process within WSL.

Four years ago, it was theorized that Linux binaries could be used as a means for hackers to gain access to Windows Subsystem for Linux. Up until recently, there has never been a single piece of evidence to prove that theory.

The time of speculation is over: Black Lotus has not only proved it to be true but has discovered that it's actually happening.

Lumen vice president, Mike Benjamin, says, "While the use of WSL is generally limited to power users, those users often have escalated privileges in an organization." Benjamin adds, "This creates blind spots as the industry continues to remove barriers between operating systems."

Black Lotus has identified a series of samples that were uploaded every two to three weeks, dating back to May 3, 2021 through August 22, 2021. The attacks were compiled with Python 3.9, using PyInstaller for the Debian OS v8.3.0-6. All of the samples, save one, contained private IP addresses. However, one sample was associated with a publicly routable IP address (185.63.90137), which could indicate this new attack vector is still in development or just the first known instance of a hacker using this vulnerability to install malicious payloads into WSL.

Find out more about this new attack in the official Lumen blog, "No Longer Just Theory: Black Lotus Labs Uncovers Linux Executables Deployed as Stealth Windows Loaders" (https://blog.lumen.com/no-longer-just-theory-black-lotus-labs-uncovers-linux-executables-deployed-as-stealth-windows-loaders/).