Tech News Digest - 2025-04-16

📢 Voted "best"

Security updates for Wednesday

Category: Linux
Tags: Linux
Published: Wed, 16 Apr 2025 13:10:40 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:

Various Linux distributions have issued security updates to fix vulnerabilities, including AlmaLinux, Fedora, Red Hat, Slackware, SUSE, and Ubuntu. The specific packages updated vary by distribution, with fixes for issues found in chromium, kernel, java, mozilla, and other popular software components.
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (gvisor-tap-vsock, kernel, and kernel-rt), Fedora (chromium, dnf, dotnet9.0, golang, lemonldap-ng, mariadb10.11, perl-Crypt-URandom-Token, perl-DBIx-Class-EncodedColumn, php-tcpdf, podman-tui, and trunk), Red Hat (java-17-openjdk and kernel), Slackware (mozilla), SUSE (apache2-mod_auth_openidc, cosign, etcd, expat, flannel, kernel, libsqlite3-0, libvarnishapi3, mozjs52, Multi-Linux Manager 4.3: Server, Multi-Linux Manager 5.0: Server, Proxy and Retail Server, pgadmin4, rekor, rsync, rubygem-bundler, and webkit2gtk3), and Ubuntu (7zip, Docker, and quickjs).
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[$] Topics from the virtual filesystem layer

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 16 Apr 2025 00:01:10 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:

At the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Christian Brauner, co-maintainer of the virtual filesystem layer, discussed several topics with filesystem developers, including iterating through anonymous mount namespaces and unprivileged mounts. Despite only having 30 minutes to cover all the issues, the session moved quickly and introduced the topics to the assembled group.
In the first filesystem-track session at the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF), virtual filesystem (VFS) layer co-maintainer Christian Brauner had a few different topics he wanted to talk about. Issues on the agenda included iterating through anonymous mount namespaces, a needed feature for ID-mapped mounts, the perennial unprivileged mounts topic, potentially using hazard pointers for file reference counting, and Rust bindings. He did not expect to get through all of them in the 30 minutes allotted, but the session did move along pretty quickly to at least introduce them to the assembled filesystem developers.
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MITRE Warns CVE Program Faces Disruption (Security Week)

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 21:25:50 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the article in 2 sentences:

The funding for the CVE program at MITRE, which maintains a database of known cyber vulnerabilities, is set to expire on April 16. As a result, MITRE had already initiated layoffs affecting over 400 employees in its Virginia office after the US government canceled contracts worth $28 million.
Security Week is one of several outlets reporting that the funding for the CVE program at MITRE disappears as of April 16.

Maintained by MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates federal R&D centers, the CVE program is funded through multiple channels, including the U.S. government, industry partnerships, and international organizations.

Earlier this month, in anticipation of the US government funding cuts, MITRE initiated layoffs that affected more than 400 employees in its Virginia office. The cuts were ordered after the Trump administration announced more than $28 million in canceled contracts for the company.

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## Manjaro Linux 25.0 released Category: Linux
Tags: Linux
Published: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:36:38 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences: Manjaro Linux version 25.0, code-named "Zetar", has been released. This new version includes the latest Linux kernel (6.12), as well as updated versions of popular desktop environments such as GNOME (48), KDE (6.3), and Xfce (4.18).

Version 25.0 ("Zetar") of the Arch-based Manjaro Linux distribution is now available. This release includes Linux kernel 6.12, GNOME 48, KDE 6.3, Xfce 4.18, and more.

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## Fedora Linux 42 released (Fedora Magazine) Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:25:11 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary: The Fedora Project has released Fedora Linux 42, with separate "what's new" articles for Fedora Workstation and Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop. However, there is a known issue with the live media that can add an unexpected entry to the UEFI boot loader when booted from the live image, which may be problematic for dual-booting or running the live image without installation.

The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora Linux 42, with "what's new" articles for Fedora Workstation and Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop. There is also a last-minute warning about the live media for the release:

We discovered a problem with the Live boot media at the last minute, and since the release was already out of the airlock, we can't do much about it. It doesn't damage anything, but is annoying: just booting the Live media adds an unexpected entry to the UEFI boot loader even when Fedora Linux 42 is not installed to the local system.

This is primarily a concern when you are dual-booting with a different operating system, or if you're just running the Live image and not intending to actually install.

See the release notes for more information, and LWN's coverage of Fedora 42.

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