Ransomware Lineup · CLOP Ransomware · Royal Ransomware · ESXiargs Ransomware #freeyourpcfriday #malware #Linux #PSA #itsathing #avoidit #beaware #TechFreedom #FOSSnews Free Your PC Friday, Linux malware, PSA, Public Service Announcement, it’s a thing, be aware, be wise, avoid it, Tech Freedom, FOSS News LMN 1.1 – There’s Malware for Linux? Yes, Here’s How You Can Check for It Did you think that Linux was magically immune to malware? Think again. Is it harder to find a vector or an attack surface than say Windows? Hell yes, because it was designed to be used in a multiuser environment, not to mention on a network, where Windows started out as a single user, non-networked OS. The other functionality was tacked on, and done so poorly over the years. That is part of what has made it such low hanging fruit for bad actors over the decades. Ok, so what kinds of malware (viruses, etc) can hit, and have been targeted at Linux machines lately? I’ve talked about Critical Vulnerability Exploits before, which leave holes in the “armor” of Linux, but these things usually get patched before they become major problems, so what else? The big group right now is various kinds of ransomware, some target vulnerable virtual machines, others, IoT appliances, and others, larger targets. Other common forms are cryptojackers, Rootkits, and state-sponsored attacks (which can take a myriad of forms, from a wiper, to a trojan, to a keylogger, to a screen recorder or a mic & camera hijacker). What’s ransomware? Malware meant to penetrate a network or system, hunt down key files, then deny access until the attacker’s demands are met. What’s a cryptojacker? A piece of software that silently hiajcks your system’s resources to mine crypto, such as BTC or any other similar proof-of-work sort of coin or token. What’s a rootkit? A piece of software which allows an attacker to gain admin or ROOT level access to your system, from which point they could destroy your install, or steal data, or any other number of nasty things. Ok, primer over. What can we do about it? How can we avoid these things? How can we handle these things if we get exposed somehow? We can use something like ClamAV, Lynis, Chkrootkit, or Linux Malware Detect to scan and protect ourselves. These are FOSS options that are similar to the Windows anti-malware programs out there, like NOD ESET32, BlackIce Defender, Kaspersky, or PandaAV. These are scanners which depend on up to date defnitions, for the most part. Aside from that, the best way to avoid them is to know the sorts of places where you might be exposed, then avoid them, kinda like you don’t walk through a sewer with a white linen suit on, and expect to come out as clean as you entered. Many of these things live on packages that sit on disreputable githubs or random repos or PPA’s with promises of riches, or convenience, but those packages weren’t what they promised, they contained nasty code meant to do harm to your system and its data. Stay out of the dark web and away from porn sites, as that is one of the main vectors for these things, like mosquitoes with Malaria or West Nile virus. Same idea. Digital hygiene is crucial. Stay out of the sewers and cess pools, stay away from the back alleys and narrow lanes of the internet. Stay on well-trodden paths. Don’t open random crap in your email. Even if it came from an address you know, trust, but verify. Call or text the person first, to make sure that they sent you that file before you open it. https://linuxsecurity.com/features/how-to-check-if-your-linux-system-is-infected-with-a-virus #FreeYourPCFriday #malware #Linux #PSA #TechFreedom #FOSSnews Ransomware Roundup We have 3 major kinds of ransomware attacks happening in the Linux world right now, two of which target vulnerable virtual machines, and the other is actually a rather weak port of a Windows attack put out by Clop, which is a sophisticated tool which infiltrates, encrypts files, then makes demands of the owners. The Linux version is kinda sloppy and easily beaten, thankfully. The encryption used was weak, and researchers have already released a free tool to recover those encrypted files for you. That is the beauty of FOSS, researchers can look at code directly, patch things, and quickly devise tools to defang attacks like these. https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/07/clop-ransomware-linux-flaw/ #FreeYourPCFriday #clop #ransomware #malware #Linux #weaksauce #TechFreedom #FOSSnews Another couple of strains of ransomware have been targeting large outfits, and have been shooting directly at VMWare ESXi virtual machines. Here’s what it does: goes after the virtual machines on servers that major outfits have begun to deploy to more tightly control resource management, isolate things better, and provide an extra layer of resiliency for their infrastructures. Who has been using these sorts of attacks? All sorts of gangs, from Conti, to Black Basta, to Royal Ransomware and others. What do these VM server attacks do? Well, each one is slightly different. Royal’s efforts will target specific kinds of files within each VM, shut them down, encrypt the files, leave the note, then sit back and wait for the organization to either cave to pressure and pay up, or to figure some other way out of their sticky situation. The ESXi-args attack does similar things by exploiting unpatched servers. There is a two+ year old exploit that this attack depends on, so patch your dadgum systems, already. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/linux-version-of-royal-ransomware-targets-vmware-esxi-servers/ https://blogs.blackberry.com/en/2023/02/esxiargs-ransomware-knocking-out-unpatched-vmware-esxi-linux-servers-worldwide

FFF 2.1 – Proton 8 Fresh off the Presses What’s new with this version? Lots new playable games: • Forspoken • Samurai Maiden • Dead Space (2023) • Creativerse • Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition • One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 • Atelier Meruru • Atelier Lydie & Suelle ~The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings~ • Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX • Blue Reflection • Atelier Rorona ~The Alchemist of Arland~ DX • Disney Dreamlight Valley • ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS XIV • ToGather:Island • WARRIORS OROCHI 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition • Exceed - Gun Bullet Children • Gungrave G.O.R.E. • Chex Quest HD And of course, a bevy of bug fixes • Fixed 2K launcher failure caused by launcher update. • Fixed Arabic fonts in FIFA 21 and 22. • Improved CJK font support in many games including NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Souzou with Power Up Kit, Stardom 3 and Sword and Fairy 3. • Improved sleep/resume functionality on Steam Deck for Tiny Tina's Wonderland. • Improved multi-touch support. • Fixed native scrollbar being always visible in Final Fantasy XIV Online launcher. • Fixed A Plague Tale: Innocence and A Plague Tale: Requiem showing on-screen keyboard when starting the game on the Steam Deck. • Fixed rendering issues during cutscenes in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. • Fixed Japanese keyboard input in Final Fantasy XIV Online. • Fixed Football manager 2023 crashing when trying to return from a player profile. • Fixed experimental regression: Fall in Labyrinth started crashing on some setups. • Improved CJK characters rendering in many games including NOBUNAGA'S AMBITION: Souzou with Power Up Kit. • Fixed Life is Strange Remastered crashing at the end of chapter 2. • Fixed Alt+Tab not working on Gnome 43. • Improved force feedback compatibility for BeamNG and Forza Horizon 5. • Fixed regression with Mortal Kombat X performance. • Fixed OpenGL launch option for Youropa. • Fixed raytracing in Crysis Remastered. • Improved multiplayer support in Company of Heroes III. • Improved fullscreen support for The Last Blade 2. • Fixed regression: Minecraft Dungeons was hanging when disconnecting from multiplayer game. • Fixed Immortals Fenyx Rising missing/out-of-order audio lines in cutscenes. • Fixed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launcher flickering on Wayland. • Fixed Story Mode not working in Dead or Alive 6. • Enabled nvapi for many games. • Updated wine to 8.0. • Updated dxvk to v2.1-4-gcaf31033. • Updated vkd3d-proton to v2.8-84-g08909d98. • Updated dxvk-nvapi to v0.6.2. • Updated wine-mono to 7.4.1. Only works with Vulkan 1.3 compatible cards https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/valve-rolls-out-proton-80-to-further-improve-steam-deck-and-linux-gaming/ #FFF #steam #proton #steamdeck #Linuxgaming #FOSSNews #TechFreedom FFF 2.2 – New Release for MangoHud Statistics Overlay What’s MangoHud? MangoHud is a system statistics overlay app which you can use while you play most games, if you just have to know your FPS, temperatures, frequencies, and various usages in realtime. It’s what you see in many review videos on YouTube, or in your game streamers on twitch and the like. So what’s new for this handy tool? • Fixed issue that applied picmip without option being set. • Reverted x11 poller that was causing segfaults 06edee4. • Fixed issues with horizontal and legacy_layout. • Fixed amdgpu APU power and temperature reading. • Fixed certain hud elements displaying incorrectly in horizontal. • Fixed an issue causing segfault when using MANGOHUD_CONFIG. Sounds like it used to float around in the wrong spots on the steamdeck and in Linux, that issue has been fixed (see point 5 above). https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/mangohud-performance-overlay-gets-a-few-needed-fixes-in-v069-1/ #FFF #mangohud #Linux #Linuxgaming #steamdeck #performance #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom #Truth FFF 2.3 – Mineclone2 has a New Version Out Last week I talked about the FOSS core for this implementation of early minecraft code, and you need that in order to play this, as it is more or less a DLC content pack made for minetest. Here’s a sampling of what’s new, here, boys & girls. • new and updated music • new sound effects • biome coloured foliage and water • mobs can ride minecarts • hoppers can put items in minecarts • new and improved /clearmobs commands • Iron Golems now protect themselves and villagers • various performance improvements • improved translations • lots of bug fixes and more.. If I had time to throw at it, and cared at all on any kind of personal level about MineCraft or its spinoffs/knockoffs I would probably test it out. However, neither of those things is true of me, so I won’t. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/mineclone2-v083-out-now-the-sandbox-game-for-minetest-inspired-by-minecraft/ #FFF #Linux #FOSSgames #Linuxgaming #mineclone2 #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

FFF 3.1 – Proton Experimental Valve released an update to Proton Experimental on April 26th that includes these newly supported games: · Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint. · Minecraft Legends. · Company of Heroes: Battle of Crete. · STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN. These are fixes from regressions in Proton 8: · Baldur's Gate 3 no longer launches to a black screen in Vulkan mode. · Divinity: Original Sin: Enhanced Edition and Divinity Original Sin II: Definitive Edition no longer crash on resolution change. · Path of Exile no longer crashes. · GTA V no longer freezes after each key press. Plus there's these other improvements too: · Fixed Proton Experimental regression causing Payday 2 to crash on start. · Improved Elden Ring compatibility compared to Proton 8.0-1. It can still be a bit finicky. · Fixed memory leak in Trackmania and Ubisoft Connect overlay. · Added a temporary workaround for EA Launcher crashing. Steam Deck's on-screen keyboard may not pop up automatically while using it. · Fixed Madballs in Babo: Invasion claiming the game wasn't purchased. · Fixed PlanetSide 2 launcher. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/proton-experimental-upgraded-for-april-26th-brings-fixes-and-new-game-support/ #FFF #steam #proton #steamdeck #Linuxgaming #FOSSNews #TechFreedom FFF 3.2 – New AMD Chips for Handhelds A new line of chips for devices like the Steam Deck? OOOhhhhh, shiny!!! What’s the big deal with these little guys? These are Zen 4 based chips with RDNA3 GFX built in, and are being billed as more efficient and powerful (standard marketing speak) than what is currently available. If you didn’t know AMD powers most current-gen home consoles at this point, and is the heart of the Steam Deck. The first devices to run one will be a new Steam Deck competitor from ASUS, the ROG Ally. We don’t know much of anything about these devices right now, but this bodes well for the future of handheld PCs. Personally, I’m not sold on the longevity of the form factor, but then I’m not particularly mobile these days, and I don’t game much, so I suppose I am not the target demo for these products. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/amd-ryzen-z1-series-announced-for-handhelds-asus-rog-ally-first-to-get-it/ #FFF #AMD #Z1 #Linux #Linuxgaming #handhelds #performance #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ https://techfredom.pro/free-your-pc/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom #Truth FFF 2.3 – UK CMA Blocks Microsoft’s Purchase of Activision Could this mega-deal be on the rocks? I don’t know who has been paying attention to this since the attempt was announced 6-8 months ago, but if the EU and the FTC follow suit with the UK regulator, whose primary concern is with cloud gaming, as MSFT already has too much control the cloud space in general, and this deal would only make it harder for other cloud services to gain access to those Activision/Blizzard titles (Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, specifically) which seem poised to be released to other platforms in the coming decade. MSFT tried to get around these issues over the time since the merger was announced, but their moves were not enough to assuage or allay the regulator’s worries in the UK. Another point of interest for those who watch my content is that the UK regulator was also concerned that the deal was not open enough for providers who might wish to make these titles available on alternative PC operating systems (see: Linux). It would appear that the FTC has been itching to block this deal as well, and with the nascent go-ahead by the fact that the UK’s CMA have already blocked it, it just might give them the peace of mind to do so as well. I wish it weren’t so linked together. We should be more independent than all that. We have our own country still, don’t we? https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/uk-cma-blocks-the-microsoft-takeover-of-activision/ #FFF #Linux #games #Linuxgaming #microsoft #activision #deathknell #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

FOSS Fun Friday 4 OBS News for Creators Steam Now Has Over 9,000 Playable Games Free Your PC Proton 8.1 Released #FFF #proton #steam #valve #Linux #Linuxnews #Linuxgaming #OBS #streaming #screenrecording #contentcreators #FOSSNews #TechFreedom FOSS Fun Friday, Proton experimental, Linux, Linux News, Linux gaming, Steam, OBS 29.1, lots of OBS goodness, FOSS News, Tech Freedom FFF 4.1 – OBS 29.1 Released Now If only I had a newer machine... come on, Jesus! This update is a massive, juicy one. The headline changes are HEVC & AV1 streaming support for YT, making it easier (with modern hardware) to do a higher quality stream with less effort on your computer. Here’s the full list of things updated: · Added support for streaming AV1/HEVC over Enhanced RTMP [YouTube/yuriy-chunak/derrod] · Enhanced RTMP V1 extends the RTMP protocol to support newer video codecs and HDR. More info at: https://github.com/veovera/enhanced-rtmp · Currently only supported by/enabled for YouTube as a beta feature · HDR is not yet implemented (oops, then again, most people couldn’t really enjoy it anyway, and YT HDR support is legendarily bad from what I have heard, anyway) · Added support for multiple audio tracks in Simple output recording [pkv] · Added a DLL blocking feature for Windows. This allows OBS to block problematic DLLs from attaching to OBS and causing freezing or crashes, for example 3rd party overlay hooks and outdated video capture devices. [notr1ch] · This blocks old versions of popular VTubing software virtual cameras that are known to cause freezes when accessing video capture device properties. If you are affected, please update to the latest version of your VTubing software. · Added settings to select the audio encoder for streaming and recording [tytan652] · Added an option to preload media sources used in Stingers to memory, to avoid frame skips during transitions [Jim] · Added Update Channels on macOS and updated Sparkle for smaller and faster updates going forward [derrod] · Added compatibility notices in the Window and Game Capture sources for Windows [derrod] · Added the ability to zoom browser docks with Ctrl - and + and the right click menu [WizardCM] · Added a setting to record in fragmented MP4 and MOV formats [derrod] · These offer greater compatibility than MKV while providing similar resilience against data loss due to crashes, running out of space, etc. · Fragmented MP4 and MOV files can be remuxed to regular MP4/MOV in cases where the former may not be read correctly (e.g. in older editing software) · Added support for surround sound for AJA capture cards [paulh-aja] · Added ProRes 4444 (XQ) support for VideoToolbox encoder on macOS [jpark37] · Added lossless audio recording options (FLAC/ALAC/PCM including 32-bit float) [derrod] · Added indicator if an audio source is unmuted, but not assigned to any audio tracks [derrod] · Added AMD AV1 encoder to simple output mode [notr1ch] (excellent for those who want to get away from team Green) Just for Linux, there were a couple of improvements like these: · Significantly improve screen capture performance on Intel dedicated GPUs on Linux [kkartaltepe] (sweet) · JACK inputs on Linux will now display "OBS Studio" in their name to clarify their origin. This may cause existing configured devices to stop working until updated by the user [univrsal] (very good) · Fixed a crash on shutdown with virtual camera on Linux [kkartaltepe/norihiro] (‘bout time, y’all) · Fixed an issue in the V4L2 source on Linux where a capture device's frame rate could be invalid, resulting in incredibly large log files [9p4] · Fixed an issue where Push to Talk on Linux wouldn't work when assigned to secondary mouse buttons [KasinSparks] So as you can see, it is quite a list of good stuff, here. I’m glad that the team puts so much love into this app that I use so often. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/05/obs-studio-291-is-out-now-with-av1-hevc-for-youtube/ #FFF #OBS #streaming #recording #Linuxgaming #FOSSNews #TechFreedom FFF 4.2 – OVER 9,000!!!! Yes, that’s right. We Penguins now have 9,026 verified or playable games on the Steam Deck through proton. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t more available games that work just fine out of the box, but these are the ones which have gone through the verification process. This number is growing all the time, and will continue to do so. This milestone was particularly funny to me, because even though I didn’t really get into DragonBall Z, this filtered down to me somehow. Not much else to say here, other than LOL. In case you were wondering, here are the criteria for how a game comes to be considered “verified” it isn’t a perfect process, and some get through which shouldn’t, while others seem to fail, but should be verified. · Input o The title should have full controller support, use appropriate controller input icons, and automatically bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed. · Display o The game should support the default resolution of Steam Deck (1280x800 or 1280x720), have good default settings, and text should be legible. · Seamlessness o The title shouldn’t display any compatibility warnings, and if there’s a launcher it should be navigable with a controller. · System Support o If running through Proton, the game and all its middleware should be supported by Proton. This includes anti-cheat support. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/05/steam-deck-hits-over-9000-games-rated-verified-and-playable/ #FFF #steamdeck #verified #steam #proton #Linux #Linuxgaming #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ https://techfreedom.pro/free-your-pc #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom #Truth FFF 4.3 – GE-Proton 8-1 Released All based on Proton 8, now, and here are the highlights: · All build components rebased to Proton 8 experimental/upstream. · proton-wine updated to latest experimental. · wine-staging rebased on top of proton-wine 8. · proton-ge game patches and pending wine upstream patches rebased on top of proton-wine 8. · dxvk updated to latest git. · vkd3d-proton updated to latest git. · protonfix: No cutscene audio in Daedalic Games (Memoria, The Night of the Rabbit, A New Beginning - Final Cut) - (thanks marianoag). · protonfix: Megadimension Neptunia VII - (thanks snaggly). But we also have a few things that got broken with the rebasing process: · FSR is currently disabled again. It needs a massive rebase and same as before I don't know if it's currently possible to rebase/port it over to the new proton 8 build. · Having the nvapi hack configuration enabled in dxvk.conf seems to crash battlenet. Recommend removing it from the config for existing Lutris battle.net installations and related games. · Overwatch losing focus after death seems to be fixed. As always, GE-Proton is community-made, and sometimes works better than the main branch, but not always. Make sure that there are marked improvements for your specific game(s) before you jump at the new, shiny object, though. It may lead to problems for you if you don’t. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/05/ge-proton-8-1-released-mainly-pulling-in-proton-8-upgrades/ #FFF #Linux #games #Linuxgaming #geproton #latest #updates #FOSSNews #TechFreedom