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submitted 4 months ago by pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Last Tuesday, loads of Linux users—many running packages released as early as this year—started reporting their devices were failing to boot. Instead, they received a cryptic error message that included the phrase: “Something has gone seriously wrong.”

The cause: an update Microsoft issued as part of its monthly patch release. It was intended to close a 2-year-old vulnerability in GRUB, an open source boot loader used to start up many Linux devices. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 8.6 out of 10, made it possible for hackers to bypass secure boot, the industry standard for ensuring that devices running Windows or other operating systems don’t load malicious firmware or software during the bootup process. CVE-2022-2601 was discovered in 2022, but for unclear reasons, Microsoft patched it only last Tuesday.

...

The reports indicate that multiple distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Puppy Linux, are all affected. Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the error publicly, explain how it wasn’t detected during testing, or provide technical guidance to those affected. Company representatives didn’t respond to an email seeking answers.

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[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 months ago

Always install rEFInd Always keep a rEFInd USB stick around Basic Computer 101

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 2 points 4 months ago

Is this instead of grub, or in adding to?

[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Addition to, it's basically a bootloader selector with some extra stuff

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 2 points 4 months ago

But then wouldn't the Microsoft "fix" still bork up grub?

[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Microsoft doesn't break grub, it does what is known as a "bootloader coup". rEFInd is an easy way to fix without having to google magical console incantation after booting in an installer liveusb and then chrooting into the broken system

You USB boot that rEFInd stick and choose " install rEFInd" and you're done.

The only catch is the rEFInd is kind of a maze to find the rEFInd .iso

It is here

http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.14.2/refind-flashdrive-0.14.2.zip/download

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 points 4 months ago

Oh, that sounds awesome!

this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024
643 points (99.4% liked)

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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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