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400+ Arch Linux AUR Packages Compromised in a Supply Chain Attack Deploying Infostealers (cybersecuritynews.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 9 points 1 month ago (1 child)

So what would the alternative be? If the resources or desire don't exist to make a package official, how else would you install it?

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  • [–] -2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    You're missing the point entirely. I'm talking about inspecting the scripts not about making packages

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Sorry if I was unclear. You usually don't inspect the install scripts for official packages since you put the trust in the official team. You don't trust(or at least shouldn't) AUR packages, hence you should inspect the install script for those packages. I don't really see what the alternative would be.

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  • [–] -4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Well, the alternative would be for moderation team to inspect them, with clear signaling of which scripts are trusted and which aren't.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    But this is exactly what the top comment of Cease talks about: There is no moderation team. You seem to think that it is the job of the maintainers of the Arch Linux distribution is to vet and review the AUR packages. But they take care for the - much more widely used - Arch distro packages and are busy with this. They have enough to do. And the AUR packages are not part of the Arch distro.

    The AUR is basically a server where users can store their own packages so that others can use it. As its name says: Arch User Repository.

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  • [+] -9 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    There is no moderation team.

    And that's why it's fundamentally shit idea on so many levels. Instead of having one person to inspect let's make every single user expert or not to inspect every package each individually. This is fucking retardation at its finest.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    But who would do that? Do you have security expertise and are volunteering to do that?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    Exactly. Let's also not forget it isn't just a matter of inspecting it once, it would be for EVERY update of the script. It would be a major bottleneck to get updates out for any package. There are comments on the AUR site where people can flag issues, so we do have some crowd sourcing, but I'd still not trust it.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    There IS one person that inspect the code for everyone, that's the package maintainer. But it's a random voluntary contribution from some random person who you should not blindly trust. That's the point of the AUR, one person makes it significantly easier to install for everyone. The point is to be better than installing directly from somewhere like GitHub. For actual good moderation there are officials repos

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