- Arch-announce - lists.archlinux.org

[arch-announce] Cleaning up old repositories
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Sven-Hendrik Haase 17 Feb '25

17 Feb '25

Around two years ago, we've merged the `[community]` repository into `[extra]` as part of the [git migration](https://archlinux.org/news/git-migration-completed/). In order to not break user setups, we kept these repositories around in an unused and empty state. We're going to clean up these old repositories on **2025-03-01**. On systems where `/etc/pacman.conf` still references the old `[community]` repository, `pacman -Sy` will return an error on trying to sync … [View More]

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[arch-announce] Glibc 2.41 corrupting Discord installation
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Frederik Schwan 03 Feb '25

03 Feb '25

We plan to move `glibc` and its friends to stable later today, Feb 3. After installing the update, the Discord client will show a red warning that the installation is corrupt. This issue has been fixed in the Discord canary build. If you rely on audio connectivity, please use the canary build, login via browser or the flatpak version until the fix hits the stable Discord release. There have been no reports that (written) chat connectivity is affected. URL: https://archlinux.org/news/glibc-241-corrupting-discord-installation/

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[arch-announce] Critical rsync security release 3.4.0
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Robin Candau 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

We'd like to raise awareness about the rsync security release version `3.4.0-1` as described in our advisory [ASA-202501-1](https://security.archlinux.org/ASA-202501-1). An attacker only requires anonymous read access to a vulnerable rsync server, such as a public mirror, to execute arbitrary code on the machine the server is running on. Additionally, attackers can take control of an affected server and read/write arbitrary files of any connected client. Sensitive data can be … [View More]

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[arch-announce] Providing a license for package sources
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Rafael Epplée 19 Nov '24

19 Nov '24

Arch Linux hasn't had a license for any package sources (such as PKGBUILD files) in the past, which is potentially problematic. Providing a license will preempt that uncertainty. In [RFC 40](https://rfc.archlinux.page/0040-license-package-sources/) we agreed to change all package sources to be licensed under the very liberal [0BSD](https://spdx.org/licenses/0BSD.html) license. **This change will not limit what you can do with package sources**. Check out [the RFC](https://rfc.… [View More]

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[arch-announce] Manual intervention for pacman 7.0.0 and local repositories required
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Morten Linderud 14 Sep '24

14 Sep '24

With the release of [version 7.0.0][0] pacman has added support for downloading packages as a separate user with dropped privileges. For users with local repos however this might imply that the download user does not have access to the files in question, which can be fixed by assigning the files and folder to the `alpm` group and ensuring the executable bit (`+x`) is set on the folders in question. $ chown :alpm -R /path/to/local/repo Remember to [merge the .pacnew][1] files to apply the … [View More]

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[arch-announce] The sshd service needs to be restarted after upgrading to openssh-9.8p1
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Robin Candau 01 Jul '24

01 Jul '24

After upgrading to `openssh-9.8p1`, the existing SSH daemon will be unable to accept new connections (see <https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/openssh/-/issues/5>). When upgrading remote hosts, please make sure to restart the sshd service using `systemctl try-restart sshd` right after upgrading. We are evaluating the possibility to automatically apply a restart of the sshd service on upgrade in a future release of the openssh-9.8p1 package. URL: https://archlinux.org/news/the-sshd-service-needs-to-be-restarted-after-upg…

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[arch-announce] Arch Linux 2024 Leader Election Results
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Christian Heusel 15 Apr '24

15 Apr '24

Recently we held our leader election, and the previous Project Leader Levente "anthraxx" Polyák ran again while no other people were nominated for the role. As per [our election rules][0] he is re-elected for a new term. The role of of the project lead within Arch Linux is connected to [a few responsibilities][1] regarding decision making (when no consensus can be reached), handling financial matters with SPI and overall project management tasks. **Congratulations to … [View More]

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[arch-announce] Increasing the default vm.max_map_count value
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Robin Candau 07 Apr '24

07 Apr '24

The [vm.max_map_count][1] paramater will be increased from the default `65530` value to `1048576`. This change should help address performance, crash or start-up issues for a number of memory intensive applications, particularly for (but not limited to) [some Windows games][2] played through Wine/Steam Proton. Overall, end users should have a smoother experience out of the box with no expressed concerns about potential downsides in [the related proposal on arch-dev-public mailing list][3]. … [View More]

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[arch-announce] The xz package has been backdoored
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: David Runge 29 Mar '24

29 Mar '24

TL;DR: Upgrade your systems and container images **now**! As many of you may have already read [1], the upstream release tarballs for `xz` in version `5.6.0` and `5.6.1` contain malicious code which adds a backdoor. This vulnerability is tracked in the Arch Linux security tracker [2]. The `xz` packages prior to version `5.6.1-2` (specifically `5.6.0-1` and `5.6.1-1`) contain this backdoor. The following release artifacts contain the compromised `xz`: - installation medium `2024.03.01` - … [View More]virtual machine images `20240301.218094` and `20240315.221711` - container images created between and including *2024-02-24* and *2024-03-28* The affected release artifacts have been removed from our mirrors. We strongly advise against using affected release artifacts and instead downloading what is currently available as latest version! ## Upgrading the system It is strongly advised to do a full system upgrade right away if your system currently has `xz` version `5.6.0-1` or `5.6.1-1` installed: ``` pacman -Syu ``` ## Upgrading container images To figure out if you are using an affected container image, use either ``` podman image history archlinux/archlinux ``` or ``` docker image history archlinux/archlinux ``` depending on whether you use `podman` or `docker`. Any Arch Linux container image older than `2024-03-29` and younger than `2024-02-24` is affected. Run either ``` podman image pull archlinux/archlinux ``` or ``` docker image pull archlinux/archlinux ``` to upgrade affected container images to the most recent version. Afterwards make sure to rebuild any container images based on the affected versions and also inspect any running containers! ## Regarding sshd authentication bypass/code execution From the upstream report [1]: > openssh does not directly use liblzma. However debian and several other distributions patch openssh to support systemd notification, and libsystemd does depend on lzma. Arch does not directly link openssh to liblzma, and thus this attack vector is not possible. You can confirm this by issuing the following command: ``` ldd "$(command -v sshd)" ``` However, out of an abundance of caution, we advise users to remove the malicious code from their system by upgrading either way. This is because other yet-to-be discovered methods to exploit the backdoor could exist. [1]: https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4 [2]: https://security.archlinux.org/ASA-202403-1 URL: https://archlinux.org/news/the-xz-package-has-been-backdoored/ [View Less]

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[arch-announce] mkinitcpio hook migration and early microcode
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Morten Linderud 04 Mar '24

04 Mar '24

With the release of [mkinitcpio v38][^1], several hooks previously provided by Arch packages have been moved to the mkinitcpio upstream project. The hooks are: systemd, udev, encrypt, sd-encrypt, lvm2 and mdadm_udev. To ensure no breakage of users' setup occurs, temporary conflicts have been introduced into the respective packages to prevent installing packages that are no longer compatible. The following packages needs to be upgraded together: * mkinitcpio 38-2 * systemd 255.4-2 * … [View More]

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