driver – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Ubuntu 17.10 Temporarily Pulled Due To A BIOS Corrupting Problem

An anonymous reader writes: Canonical has temporarily pulled the download links for Ubuntu 17.10 “Artful Aardvark” from the Ubuntu website due to ongoing reports of some laptops finding their BIOS corrupted after installing this latest Ubuntu release. The issue is appearing most frequently with Lenovo laptops but there are also reports of issues with other laptop vendors as well. This issue appears to stem from the Intel SPI driver in the 17.10’s Linux 4.13 kernel corrupting the BIOS for a select number of laptop motherboards. Canonical is aware of this issue and is planning to disable the Intel SPI drivers in their kernel builds. Canonical’s hardware enablement team has already verified this works around the problem, but doesn’t provide any benefit if your BIOS is already corrupted. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Linux Has a USB Driver Security Problem

Catalin Cimpanu, reporting for BleepingComputer: USB drivers included in the Linux kernel are rife with security flaws that in some cases can be exploited to run untrusted code and take over users’ computers. The vast majority of these vulnerabilities came to light on Monday, when Google security expert Andrey Konovalov informed the Linux community of 14 vulnerabilities he found in the Linux kernel USB subsystem. “All of them can be triggered with a crafted malicious USB device in case an attacker has physical access to the machine, ” Konovalov said. The 14 flaws are actually part of a larger list of 79 flaws Konovalov found in Linux kernel USB drivers during the past months. Not all of these 79 vulnerabilities have been reported, let alone patched. Most are simple DoS (Denial of Service) bugs that freeze or restart the OS, but some allow attackers to elevate privileges and execute malicious code. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux Has a USB Driver Security Problem

Slackware, Oldest Linux Distro Still In Active Development, Turns 24

sombragris writes: July 17 marked the 24th anniversary of Slackware Linux, the oldest GNU/Linux still in active development, being created in 1993 by Patrick Volkerding, who still serves as its BDFL. Version 14.2 was launched last year, and the development version (Slackware-current) currently offers kernel 4.9.38, gcc 7.1, glibc 2.25, mesa 17.1.5, and KDE and Xfce as official desktops, with many others available as 3rd party packages. Slackware is also among the Linux distributions which have not adopted systemd as its init system; instead, it uses a modified BSD init which is quite simple and effective. Slackware is known to be a solid, stable and fast setup, with easy defaults which is appreciated by many Linux users worldwide. Phoronix has a small writeup noting the anniversary and there’s also a nice reddit thread. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Slackware, Oldest Linux Distro Still In Active Development, Turns 24

Texting While Driving Now Legal In Colorado — In Some Cases

Fines for texting and driving in Colorado have jumped to $300, but according to the fine print, the increased fine only applies to drivers who are texting in “a careless or imprudent manner.” Therefore, drivers who are texting in any other manner are still within the law. FOX31 Denver reports: Before the new legislation, any texting while driving was illegal. Tim Lane of the Colorado District Attorney’s Office confirmed the softening crackdown on all texting and driving. “The simple fact is that if you are texting while driving but not being careless, it’s no longer illegal, ” he said. What constitutes “careless” driving is up to the discretion of each individual law enforcement officer. Cellphone use of any kind is still banned for drivers younger than 18. Teens caught with a phone in hand while driving will be slapped with a $50 fine. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to report being affected by Friday’s ransomware attack that affected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, reports Automotive News . An English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. Read more…

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Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to report being affected by Friday’s ransomware attack that affected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, reports Automotive News . An English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. Read more…

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Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to report being affected by Friday’s ransomware attack that affected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, reports Automotive News . An English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. Read more…

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Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to report being affected by Friday’s ransomware attack that affected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, reports Automotive News . An English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. Read more…

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Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to report being affected by Friday’s ransomware attack that affected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, reports Automotive News . An English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. Read more…

View original post here:
Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

Renault And Nissan Plants Hit By Massive Ransomware Attack

French auto giant Renault became the first major French company to report being affected by Friday’s ransomware attack that affected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries across the world, reports Automotive News . An English plant of Renault’s alliance partner Nissan was also hit by the attack. Read more…