Hundreds of orphaned packages hosted by the Arch User Repository (AUR) have been compromised by an attacker who has added a malicious npm package (atomic-lockfile) that can exfiltrate sensitive data. The project is currently working on cleaning up the mess. There is a list of affected packages and post by "sodiboo" with additional information. Arch Linux users (or users of Arch-based distributions) that use AUR packages may wish to see if they have installed any of the compromised updates.
Version 6.0.0 of the Homebrew package-management system has been released. Notable changes in this release include the introduction of tap trust to improve supply-chain security, improvements in sandboxing on Linux, a number of performance tweaks, and many other changes. See the changelog for a full list. LWN covered Homebrew in November 2025.
The Linux kernel has long tried to use huge pages as a way to improve performance, sometimes with more success than others. The size of huge pages has traditionally been imposed by the hardware, which typically only offers a couple of relatively large options. In more recent times, though, the use of multi-size transparent huge pages (mTHPs), with more flexible sizing implemented in software, has been growing. If all goes well, the 7.2 development cycle will include the addition of a new feature, contributed by Nico Pache, to make the use of mTHPs even more transparent.
Seth Larson, the Python Software Foundation's security developer-in-residence, has written about the difficulty in classifying insecure code completion in the PyCharm IDE using its Full Line code completion plugin. Larson discovered that the plugin, which uses a local "deep learning module" to offer code completions, suggests code that would lead to severe vulnerabilities. He was unsure whether it warranted a CVE or not, however: I reported this behavior to JetBrains for "Full Line Code Completion" v253.29346.142 and clearly their support staff weren't certain whether this defect was a security vulnerability or not either. When I asked to publish a blog post about this behavior after they confirmed this report wasn't a "direct security vulnerability" (which I agree with) but then was asked not to publicize my report and referred to PyCharm's Coordinated Disclosure Policy so... which is it? Security vulnerability or not? I ended up waiting the 90 days anyway and I didn't hear back with
Agentic AI systems can be used to do a variety of things autonomously on behalf of a human user: open or manage bugs, generate code, submit pull-requests, and (apparently) even complain about rejection. In May, a Fedora developer discovered that an allegedly rogue agent had been pestering the project in a number of ways: reassigning bugs, fabricating unhelpful replies to bugs, and even persuading maintainers to merge questionable code into the Anaconda installer. It also submitted a number of pull requests (PRs), some accepted, to several upstream projects. The Fedora account associated with the agent has had its group privileges revoked and the messes have been mopped up, but the motive behind the agent's actions is still a mystery.
Version 2026.05 of the Buildroot tool has been released. Buildroot simplifies and automates the process of building embedded Linux systems using cross-compilation. Notable changes in this release include support for Arm Neoverse cores, addition of XFS rootfs generation, as well as many package updates and bug fixes. See the CHANGES file for the full list.
Thomas Ward has published an update about the future of the Ubuntu MATE project, which did not have a 26.04 release with the other Ubuntu flavors in April: There is a new team working on Ubuntu MATE who have stepped up to help take over flavor management. They haven't formally introduced themselves yet, but I can safely say that other developers HAVE stepped up for the future of the MATE flavor, despite its prior team lead having stepped down. [...] Ultimately, this means that they are working to cover the missed items and gaps, and may quite possibly have a 26.10 release in October of 2026, which I believe they most likely are targeting. This also means that bugs in the MATE environment and in packages they normally would have shipped had they have a 26.04 release are still going to get attention and fixes. So, effectively, nothing has changed. The only difference is that there was no 26.04 installer image released. For those looking to install a MATE desktop on a "clean" install of U
Trusted publishing is an authentication mechanism that relies on short-lived credentials to reduce the risk of supply-chain attacks. At the 2026 Open Source Summit North America, Mike Fiedler walked the audience through why trusted publishing exists, how it works, and made the case for its adoption. It is not a silver bullet against all attacks, but it does offer protection against theft of long-lived credentials used to publish to package registries.
The Asahi Linux project, which brings Linux support to Apple Arm-based Macs, has warned its users not to upgrade to the macOS 27 "Golden Gate" beta. Apple has changed how the boot picker and Startup Disk applications detect valid OS boot volumes. When using either from macOS 27, your Asahi partition will not be visible! We believe this to be a bug, and have filed a report (FB22994760). If you have already upgraded to the beta and noticed that your Asahi partition has disappeared, do not stress. Your Asahi partition is still there, and you have not lost any data. The Asahi Linux installer has been patched to prevent use with macOS 27 for now, but any users already bitten by the change will need to use macOS 26 to restore access to Asahi Linux.
The BPF verifier has, in the course of wrestling with the difficult problem of statically analyzing loops, grown special support for many kinds of loops over its history, but its fundamental approach to simple for loops has not changed. When it encounters a loop, it evaluates it, iteration by iteration, until reaching an exit condition — a process that can cause the verifier to mistakenly hit the limit on the number of allowed instructions where a better implementation would not. Eduard Zingerman spoke at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit about his in-progress work on improving the verifier's treatment of loops, especially nested loops.
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