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 1.1 – Steam Deck News A) Steam Deck to Cross 3 Million Units Sold This Year This should not come as a terrible surprise, as the FOSS community has really banded around the ‘Deck. It is a niche product which has great potential, but most normie-con gamers are still quite happy with their Windows PCs, XBoxes and PlayStations, thank you very much. Still, that looks like quite the coup for Steam and Valve as a whole. Sure, that doesn’t make the eye-popping numbers from the big boys, where they sell that many in a bad month, but everything in context, this is cool. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/report-steam-deck-to-pass-3-million-sales-during-2023/ #steam #valve #steamdeck #FOSSNews #Linuxgaming #TechFreedom #FFF B) GE-Proton 7-55 Released Quick note, this is not a huge update, but it makes it easier to work around and with Easy Anti-Cheat titles. so here’s what’s new in this hotfix update: · This is a hotfix for EAC. In 7-53 the star citizen hotfix broke EAC compatibility for other games, this has been fixed now. o wine updated to latest bleeding edge. o dxvk updated to git. o vkd3d-proton updated to git. o nvapi enabled for final fantasy stranger of paradise. o legacy xactengine winetricks protonfix removed as it's finally no longer needed. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/ge-proton-7-55-released-essential-fix-for-easy-anti-cheat-steam-deck/ #FFF #Steam #Linuxgaming #geproton #hotfix #easyanticheat #FOSSNews #TechFreedom C) Halo MasterChief Collection Now On Steamdeck Cool tidbit, here, boys and girls. That’s right, Microsoft’s juggernaut of a series now works better on the ‘deck. However, there are still growing pains. So, what’s new here? · When launching Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Steam Deck, selecting one of the available Anti-Cheat launch options will result in the game launching with the opposite launch option. For example, selecting “Anti-Cheat Disabled” will result in MCC launching with Anti-Cheat enabled. o Until this issue is resolved in a future update, players on Steam Deck must select the “Anti-Cheat Disabled” launch option to access multiplayer matchmaking and the Custom Game Browser. · Shortly after being removed from or leaving a party with other players via the Roster menu, players on Steam Deck may experience Halo: The Master Chief Collection freezing or crashing. o Players on Steam Deck are unable to play Campaign Co-op or Spartan Ops with players on PC or Xbox consoles. Attempting to do so may result in players accessing gameplay, however, all sessions will eventually experience a “Connection Interrupted” error or a similar disconnection. · Campaign Co-op and Spartan Ops will function as expected if all players in the group are playing on Steam Deck. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/halo-the-master-chief-collection-gets-steam-deck-support/ #FFF #halo #steamdeck #easyanticheat #Linuxgaming #FOSSNews #TechFreedom FFF 1.2 – AMD Drivers Out Now... Good Stuff So lots of changes to boost performance in AMD GFX for Linux. I alluded to some of these features a couple of weeks ago when I covered the new update for DOTA 2. This one should make some significant changes for anyone who doesn’t like Team Green with their pedo-inspired logo... But I digress. What’s new here? Well, GPL will be enabled by default, which should remove jitters from titles which do not have shader caches. Also due to a re-implementation of that shader cache structure, those cache files should be FAR smaller, which means that your hardware won’t have to work as hard and you get smoother performance. This is excellent. The changes in cache file size have been on the order of a 60% reduction in size for single-file situations, however, in multi-file situations, it has been observed to increase the overall cache size by 2%, due to overhead changes. Sounds like good stuff, even if we won’t necessarily get to see these benefits realized until potentially the next major update for Linux. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/driver-updates-for-amd-radv-to-give-nice-boost-for-linux-and-steam-deck/ #FFF #AMD #RADV #Linux #drivers #MESA #performance #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom #Truth FFF 1.3 - Not Strictly Gaming, But KDE Connect Got Some Big Love The KDE Connect team got a big grant which will allow the development team to focus on it full time. This means that this handy piece of software will get new features and updates that much more frequently. What are they working on next? · adding in a mDNS backend to improve device discovery and connections o This is a big deal because it can be a bit finicky at times, so this getting improved makes me very happy · Rolling out improvements and updates to encryption by dropping the older protocols for old Android · Security patches and updates · They’re also looking to improve the UI in terms of accessibility All good, here. Hopefully that mDNS shift will make those connection issues that I have had go away. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/kde-connect-is-getting-some-upgrades-for-easy-file-transfers/ #FFF #Linux #KDEConnect #GSConnect #security #stability #better #FOSSNews #TechFreedom FFF 1.4 – Minetest 5.7 Released If you’re thinking that the name of this game sounds allot like an uber-popular title from Mojang, you’d be right. This is a FOSS game that is very similar to Minecraft. It is an open-world, pixelart, sandbox game which allows you to build just about anything. This version adds a huge performance boost: long-distance horizon drawing used to absolutely crawl, at ~10 FPS, now that same scene practically flies at 53 FPS. That is huge, as 10 FPS is not even remotely playable, where 53 FPS is almost buttery. They’ve added some effects, such as bloom and dynamic exposure, along with occlusion culling, so that it no longer renders things that are outside the frame, and they’ve added better multi-threading support, as well as some goodies for modders. I don’t play these sorts of games at this stage in my life, but I know that many do. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/04/minetest-570-out-now-with-graphics-improvements-performance-upgrades/ #FFF #minetest #minecraft #updates #performance #goodstuff #FOSSgames #Linuxgaming #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