Zack's Kernel News
Zack's Kernel News
Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the little links that bring us closer within the Linux kernel community.
Learning Developer Practices
Sometimes a patch can be good, but it may still face hurdles getting into the kernel. This time, Aditya Garg posted a patch by Paul Pawlowski to add driver support for the T2 Security Chip. The T2 is an embedded system that runs alongside the primary computer with all its own hardware resources such as RAM. It responds to requests over USB from the primary system, but it also stays active even when that primary system is asleep. The T2 makes sure that upgrades to the primary system have all been properly signed. It's a gatekeeper intended for Apple hardware, but it has various other abilities, such as controlling microphones, cameras, speech recognition, and whatnot.
The T2 also has a variety of security holes, some of which are apparently unfixable, because of being built into the hardware design itself.
This reveals a fascinating aspect of security in the Linux and open source world. The T2 was essentially used by Apple to prevent users from getting control of the hardware in order to install software that Apple had not itself approved. The unfixable security holes simply remove Apple's ability to exert that control, paving the way for users to do things such as install Linux on machines "protected" by the T2.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
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
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.