this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026

71 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

85355 readers

4188 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

L3s@lemmy.world

enu@lemmy.world

technopagan@lemmy.world

L4s@lemmy.world

L3s@hackingne.ws

Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Affected Packages (www.phoronix.com)

submitted 3 hours ago by rafssunny@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 27 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

I've seen AUR warned against often, also by Arch team members.
I never thought it was a huge deal, but apparently anything that can be attacked will be attacked nowadays.

[–] cattywampus@lemmy.world 1 points 5 minutes ago

Yeah if your machine can be added to a botnet then it will be. Resistance is futile, we are Borg style.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 52 minutes ago

This is what happens when a shit load of packages that just sit around basically unmaintained are allowed to sit around.

[–] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 14 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

We're currently at 1621.

https://md.archlinux.org/s/SxbqukK6IA

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 3 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

I'm still missing any sort of in-depth info about all this.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 3 points 55 minutes ago (1 children)

They got hacked.

Use Debian. /s

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 0 points 51 minutes ago

I meant something I can read.

They got hacked.

I don't think so.

[–] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 1 points 50 minutes ago

Wouldn't even suprise me if they just did it fo the lulz.

[–] Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

same

[–] brokenwing@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 49 minutes ago (1 children)

What to do if I found a package I installed to be in that list? libgdata to be specific?

[–] ilmagico@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes ago

Was it installed from the aur? If not, you're fine

[–] darthsundhaft@piefed.social 6 points 2 hours ago

"I use arch btw" lmao

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 1 points 3 hours ago

Yesterday that was 400 packages, now it's 1500.

Tomorrow 3000 ?

[+] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world -9 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

Haven't seen an arch fuckup like this since they switched to signed packages.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 25 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

This is not ArchLinux' fuckup. The AUR's popularity exploded after certain Arch-based distros (and software) decided to treat the AUR as an additional software repository, even part of package management, and automate the process of installation. Which also slows the process of discovering the malware. And makes panicky users wave their arms.

May I remind everyone of Arch core principles and statements wrt AUR - several quotes from their wiki:

Whereas many GNU/Linux distributions attempt to be more user-friendly, Arch Linux has always been, and shall always remain user-centric:

The distribution is intended to fill the needs of those contributing to it, rather than trying to appeal to as many users as possible.

It is targeted at the proficient GNU/Linux user, or anyone with a do-it-yourself attitude who is willing to read the documentation, and solve their own problems.

The Arch User Repository (AUR) is a community-driven repository for Arch Linux users. It contains package descriptions (PKGBUILDs) that allow you to compile a package from source with makepkg and then install it via pacman.

Note how the crucial PKGBUILD is mentioned in the first sentence, and dozens of times in the article that follows.

Warning
AUR helpers are not supported by Arch Linux. You should become familiar with the manual build process in order to be prepared to troubleshoot problems.

The AUR even includes PGP signing; not perfect, but a useful additional step. But, alas, many AUR helpers include "skip PGP check".

Archlinux devs, maintainers and users have been saying this for over a decade, and warning against using the AUR in such ways. But short of shutting the whole thing down, what can they do? The few things that can reasonably be done I'm sure are being implemented right now.

[–] realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It's no arch fuckup. The AUR is not an arch linux redponsibility and has always been "untrusted" - you should always verify what you're downloading and building.

Problem is that bazzite and cachy are arch-based, but targeted at a group of people that arch doesn't target. So you have users that just blindly download scripts from the AUR without doing proper verification.

This is more the fault of those distros and AUR helpers than arch.

[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I thought bazzite was based on an atomic version of fedora?

[–] sgh@lemmy.ml 3 points 54 minutes ago

Yep. There's no AUR for bazzite since it's based on fedora immutable, unless I'm mistaken and there's a way to do so anyway somehow. Still, bazzite and AUR do not go hand in hand AFAIK as it's meant to be an immutable system.

[–] KexPilot@lemmy.world 25 points 2 hours ago

I wouldn't really categorise it as a fuckup. These are unofficial packages from the AUR. You should trust them as much as random install scripts from a no-name website or git repo.