minecraft-cracked
Gotta assume that if any Arch users actually fell for that one, that they either let their kids use their device or they're generally not smart ( which absolutely goes against my stereotypical view of an arch user ).
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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The stereotype of arch uses generally being smart is no longer. The "I use arch btw" meme brought a whole new user base to arch. You'll find them on r/unixporn showing off their hyperland rice that they copied from some other user..
We are getting to the point where inviting more people in means we will need an automated babysitter to watch for this shit and to pull it once it’s discovered. Apple has a walled garden approach that’s certainly taken a big chunk of malware threats out of their devices but their walled garden approach is ridiculous and impractical for Linux. The Microsoft method of monitoring and second guessing everything with antimalware programs is also suspect because it is super easy to abuse and resource intensive. We have clamAV but clam kinda sucks.
Linux is at the point where we need something that audits what’s going in and automatically yanks it back out remotely if it’s found to be a problem. Things can only be added by the user, but the bot can remove them without interaction of the user.
I don’t see this happening though. Instead, I see this as more of a rust vs C thing all over again, where valid critiques are drowned out by “improve your skills bro.”
The affected malicious packages are:
- librewolf-fix-bin
- firefox-patch-bin
- zen-browser-patched-bin
What a nice attack on privacy-friendly infrastructure.
And then, Arch AUR has such suspicious things like the Brave browser which claims to reduce tracking.... and works together with advertisers.
To be clear, AUR is fantastic if you develop some experimental package and you want to give it to your friends to try it out easily. But not as a general distribution mechanism.
To be fair the AUR is known to be very susceptible to that kind of thing due to the effective absence of entry requirements.
Absolutely.
The Arch User Repository is a way for anyone to easily distribite software.
Hence it has never been secure, and rather than claim it is, you mostly see people and documentation warn you about this, and to be careful if using it.
Any schmuck can make whatever they want available via the AUR. That's how even the tiniest niche project can often be installed via the AUR. But you trade in some security for that convenience.
It shouldn't be used as a marketplace, it should be used as a repository. You can probably find a lot of malware on GitHub, doesn't mean you go there to choose your text editor.
I never search the AUR directly, I only use it if some README tells me I can install their software via an AUR package.
Yeah, I search the AUR not to discover packages, but to see if something I want to install is in there, if it is I check the PKGBUILD and make sure none of the sources/commands/patches are suspicious.
People need to remember it's not some carefully vetted app store and that they need to be the ones vetting any packages they install and any changes when updating.
Wait what happens once some government or state actor hacks rust's install script rustup with its curl | bash install procedure and relying on TLS certificates which are e.g. issued by the Russian government. (No, the rust project won't use a Russian/Chinese/US Gov certificate but your browser will trust near all of them...)
You're using that to download a program. If they can MitM the shell script, they can just as well MitM the program that you'll run right after the download...
That is why Debian uses digital pgp signatures for all packages. And the GNU project uses strong cryptographic hashes for install packages.
As does Arch.
This is why we invented hash checking. Good thing they can't MITM where that's stored! /s
I already assumed aur was riddled with stuff like that.
Use a condom when fucking around in there.
i don't use arch (btw).
This is technically not Arch's fault btw. I use Arch but don't use AUR for this reason
Also same problem adding random PPA's on Debian and Ubuntu.
Agreed. Or piping random curl things into sh. Or downloading random exes on Windows etc
this is going to increase in frequency as linux gains popularity
I use Debian btw
This is why I felt uncomfortable when I first switched to Linux and kept reading that I didn't need to worry about viruses as long as I didn't click on dodgy links and only installed from trusted sources. I'm sure I'm betraying my lack of security knowledge here, but that always seemed a bit too easy.
@DirkMcCallahan @Tundra The AUR isn't a trusted source, but most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that.
Half the posts on the Internet are people replying to requests for help with the message "read the wiki, the aur isn't a trusted source, dummy"
Why do we have the AUR anyway?
Because it's convenient and a good way to start to write PKGBUILDs quickly without becoming a proper package maintainer.
Isn’t that like how alpinelinux’s community repository works too?
most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that
The "Arch cult's" holy book, the ArchWiki, states the following pretty clearly:
Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These
PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.
Mention of one's use of the AUR for their needs doesn't need to come with a disclaimer.
People who don't read or don't use their brain are going to keep not doing so, regardless.
Arch is not responsible for idiots.
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The AUR, key words “user repository” is a specific weak point. It doesn’t have the same level of oversight that the main arch repo has. Stick to main repos and verified flatpaks and it’s very unlikely that you’d ever be compromised.
Linux isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly better than windows where you just download executables willy nilly to install your software.
BTW python's package index has roughly the same problem - but a far less technical, experienced and critical user base. NPM has this problem since years.
Expect these problems to rise with every percent more of new Linux users which never learned the difference between opening / viewing untrusted data, and running untrusted code, because Windows basically ignores this essential concept and Android tries to solve that with sandboxing each app.
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