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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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108

How the xz backdoor highlights a major flaw in Nix (shadeyg56.vercel.app)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The main issue is the handling of security updates within the Nixpkgs ecosystem, which relies on Nix's CI system, Hydra, to test and build packages. Due to the extensive number of packages in the Nixpkgs repository, the process can be slow, causing delays in the release of updates. As an example, the updated xz 5.4.6 package took nearly 5 days to become available in the unstable branch!

Fundamentally, there needs to be a change in how security fixes are handled in Hydra. As stated in the article, Nix was lucky to be unaffected, but multiple days to push out a security patch of this severity is concerning, even if there was no reason for concern.

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[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 26 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Were systems in the stable branch at risk of compromise? Were there delays in releasing security fixes in the stable branch.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 13 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I don't even think unstable was suseptical to it. I don't think Nix ties ssh to systemd. Debian and redhat do.

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It was not vulnerable to this particular attack because the attack didn't specifically target Nixpkgs. It could have very well done so if they had wanted to.

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Anyway the xz backdoor was enabled only in rpm and deb packages.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

AFAIK it was enabled in anything that used the official source tarball. The exploit binaries were added during the tarball build process.

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nope. There were checks of build environment.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Then why did all distros issue a fix for the package?

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 months ago

Because nobody can be sure there are no other backdoors. And, I guess, they wanted to stop distribution of affected source code.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Shouldn't the lesson here be "don't introduce more complexity and dependencies to critical software"?

But then again that's systemd in a nutshell...

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 5 points 7 months ago

AFAIK, affected versions never made it to stable as there was no reason to backport it.