Internet News Section
The release of the main branch nginx 1.23.1 has been formed, continuing the development of new features. The parallel stable branch 1.22.x only includes changes related to fixing serious bugs and vulnerabilities. Next year, a stable branch 1.24 will be formed based on the main branch 1.23.x. Changes include: Optimization of memory consumption in SSL proxy configurations. In the directive […]
A group of security researchers from the uCode team have published source texts for decrypting Intel microcode. The Red Unlock technique, developed by the same researchers in 2020, can be used to extract the encrypted microcode. The proposed microcode decryption capability allows for the exploration of the internal structure of the microcode and the implementation methods of x86 machine instructions. Additionally, the researchers have restored the update format for the microcode, the encryption algorithm, and the key, […]
The release of the open-source database Nebula Graph 3.2 has been published, designed for the efficient storage of large sets of interconnected data forming a graph that can contain billions of nodes and trillions of connections. The project is written in C++ and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. Client libraries for accessing the database are available for Go, Python, and Java. The database employs a distributed […]
An update for the Qubes operating system 4.1.1 has been formed, implementing the idea of using a hypervisor for strict isolation of applications and OS components (each class of applications and system services operates in separate virtual machines). The system requires 6 GB of RAM and a 64-bit Intel or AMD CPU with support for VT-x with EPT/AMD-v with RVI and VT-d/AMD IOMMU, ideally […]
The developers of the Asahi project, aimed at porting Linux to run on Apple computers equipped with ARM chips, have published the July update of the distribution, allowing anyone interested to assess the current level of project development. Among the most notable improvements in the new release is the implementation of Bluetooth support, availability for Mac Studio devices, and initial support for the new Apple M2 chip. Asahi Linux […]
Ariadne Conill, the creator of the Audacious music player, initiator of the IRCv3 protocol development, and leader of the Alpine Linux security team, conducted research on how to optimize the cat utility, which outputs one or multiple files to the standard output stream. To improve the performance of cat in Linux, two optimization options have been proposed, based on using the system calls sendfile and splice […]
In the nightly builds of Firefox, from which the release of Firefox 104 will be formed on August 23, an editing mode has been added to the built-in PDF document viewer, offering features such as freehand annotations and comment attachments. To enable the new mode, a parameter pdfjs.annotationEditorMode has been proposed on the about:config page. Until now, the built-in capabilities of Firefox […]
Within the xfwm4-wayland project, an independent enthusiast is developing a version of the xfwm4 window manager adapted for the Wayland protocol and ported to the Meson build system. Support for Wayland in xfwm4-wayland is provided through integration with the wlroots library, developed by the Sway desktop environment creators, which offers essential functions for running a compositing manager based on Wayland. Xfwm4 is utilized in the Xfce desktop environment […]
The release of the T2 SDE 21.6 meta-distribution has taken place, providing an environment for creating custom distributions, cross-compiling, and maintaining current package versions. Distributions can be built based on Linux, Minix, Hurd, OpenDarwin, Haiku, and OpenBSD. Among the popular distributions built on the T2 system is Puppy Linux. The project offers basic bootable ISO images with minimal graphical environments in various […]
After a year of development, the release of the Arcan desktop engine version 0.6.2 has been published, which combines a display server, multimedia framework, and game engine for processing 3D graphics. Arcan can be used to create various graphical systems, from user interfaces for embedded applications to standalone desktop environments. Among other applications, the three-dimensional desktop Safespaces for virtual reality systems is being developed based on Arcan […]
An experimental release of the open implementation of WinAPI — Wine 7.13 — has occurred. Since the release of version 7.12, 16 bug reports have been resolved and 226 changes have been made. Major changes include: The Gecko browser engine has been updated to version 2.47.3. The USB driver has been transitioned to use the PE (Portable Executable) file format instead of ELF. Improved theme support has been implemented. Bug reports have been resolved, […]
The author of the standard C library Cosmopolitan and the Redbean platform has announced the implementation of the pledge() isolation mechanism for Linux. Originally developed by the OpenBSD project, pledge allows selectively prohibiting applications from making unnecessary system calls (a sort of whitelist of system calls is created for the application while all other calls are denied). Unlike the access restriction mechanisms available in Linux, such as […]