Slax Proves You Can't Keep a Good Linux Distribution Down

Anyone who's ever looked into bringing computer hardware back to life has considered one or more lightweight Linux distributions. In the search for the right operating system (OS), you might have come across Slax, which was a Debian-based OS that was quite popular for a while. However, the pandemic wreaked havoc on the development life cycle, so we hadn't seen anything new from the maintainer since 2018.

That all changes now, with the release of Slax 11.2. Based on Debian Bullseye, Almost ready for release, Slax 11.2 will include features like kernel 5.10, support for 32 and 64-bit systems, the PCManFM file manager, the ConnMan network manager, the SciTE text editor, the xterm terminal emulator, and more. The developer has opted to leave out the Chromium browser by default (due to its size). However, by clicking on the Chromium icon, the browser will automatically install.

Although Debian shifted to the OverlayFS union mount filesystem, Slax had to continue with aufs to provide the necessary support for the slax activate command, as OverlayFS doesn't allow for modification of the existing overlay filesystem on the fly.

At the moment, there's no definitive release date, but anyone interested in testing Slax 11.2 can download an ISO image for either 64- or 32-bit architecture (https://sharegorilla.com/q/Rd6dZ87).

Follow the Slax developer blog (https://www.slax.org/blog.php) to stay in the know about this lightweight Linux distribution.

Dirty Pipe Might Be the Most Severe Vulnerability to Hit Linux in Years

The name Dirty Pipe is an homage to the Dirty Cow vulnerability, discovered in 2016, and a pipeline, which is a mechanism within Linux that allows processes to share data. Tracked as CVE-2022-0847, Dirty Pipe was discovered when a researcher was troubleshooting corrupted files that continued to appear on a customer's Linux server. It took months of analysis, but eventually, Max Kellermann (the researcher in question, from Ionos) discovered those files were due to a bug in the Linux kernel and figured out a way to weaponize the vulnerability. Once weaponized on a Linux machine, anyone with an account could then add an SSH key to the root user's account such that any untrusted user could remotely access the server with full root privileges.

The same vulnerability also makes it possible for attackers to hijack an SUID binary to create a root shell, which allows untrusted users to overwrite data, even in read-only files. Other actions that can be taken on a vulnerable machine include creating a cron job that serves as a backdoor and modifying a script or binary used by a privileged service.

Find out more about Dirty Pipe in this Red Hat security bulletin (https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/RHSB-2022-002).

A Decades-Old Linux Backdoor Has Been Discovered

Back in 2013, during a forensic investigation, the Advanced Cyber Security Research team from Pangu Lab discovered a rather elusive piece of malware. Between 2016 and 2017, the hacker collective, The Shadow Brokers, leaked a large amount of data that was allegedly stolen from the Equation Group (with links to the NSA) that contained a number of hacking tools and exploits. Around the same time, the group leaked another data dump that contained a list of servers that had been hacked by the Equation Group.

According to the Advanced Cyber Security Research team, Bvp47 was used to target the telecom, military, higher-education, economic, and science sectors and hit more than 287 organizations in 47 countries. These attacks lasted over a decade as the malicious code was created so the hackers could retain long-term control over an infected device. And because the attack used zero-day vulnerabilities, there was no defense against it.

The Pangu Lab operation was code-named "Operation Telescreen" and the end result of the operation discovered this backdoor requires a check code bound to the host in order to function normally. They also determined Bvp47 to be a top-tier APT backdoor.

As far as whether or not Bvp47 is still in use today, there is no indication that is the case. But given the nature of the exploit, it wouldn't come as a shock to any research lab to discover those leaked tools had been used to cobble together even more dangerous malware.

Read the Pangu Lab report to find out more (https://www.pangulab.cn/en/post/the_bvp47_a_top-tier_backdoor_of_us_nsa_equation_group/).