OpenBSD 6.2 has been released and why it matters.

in technology •  7 years ago 

OpenBSD 6.2

MoBSD-l.gif

"Only two remote holes in the default install, in a heck of a long time!"

In my opinion the biggest changes are:

  • New versions of OpenSSH, OpenSMTPd, LibreSSL and mandoc inculded by default
  • additional support for the Intel Kaby Lake video cardsc (good for people with newer laptops perhaps)
  • A bunch of additional security options making it harder to find ROP gadgets

Full notes can be found here:
https://www.openbsd.org/62.html
website https://www.openbsd.org/
donations https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html
the song is sadly not out yet (best part, promised in December)

OpenBSD is a great operating system and it is gaining traction by the second. People should really give it a shot. My main reason for using it is their move away from OpenSSL after the devestation caused by the Heartbleed bug with many older android devices still being vulnerable. People use something that came from OpenBSD but many don't even know it! OpenSSH is developed by the same people who develop OpenBSD which is something not many people know.

Most of the basis of modern computing has been born in the United States, which means sadly that despite living outside the US, the software we use on a day to day basis has just the same backdoors as the man living in LA or San Francisco. With big websites like reddit deleting their 'warrant canary' in transparency report ; big brother isn't just a delusion of men sitting in their basements in tinfoil hats using processors from made in 1998. It has become morbid reality with people having to hand over (and unlock) laptops / phones over to the TSA when traveling into the US. More people are becoming aware of this. Reddit user crystalg21 can be quoted asking:

"If you're at an airport and the TSA want to access your iOS device, they ask you for the unlock code but you give them a code that's different than the normal one so that when they unlock the phone there will be fake decoy contacts, fake random photos, no safari history, no cydia app, etc...
Also does anyone know if something like this exists for Android?"
on a jailbreak related subreddit and I think that it is quite worrying that a feature like that has even been considered.

Linux used to be the solution to the paranoia "surely there can't be back-doors in Linux , the code is open sourced!" , and the more Linux came out into the mainstream the worst the situation became in my opinion. The tipping point for me when I just said "I don't care anymore" was December 28, 2015. The day Ian Murdock creator of Debian was found dead due to a suicide. I really don't want to be insensitive to his family but all I will say is the circumstances leading up to his death are suspicious to say the least.

Bear in mind the top 3 most popular Linux distros in 2015 were wait for it:

  1. Linux Mint
  2. Debian
  3. Ubuntu

all of them you guessed it , Debian based.

Just for one more second take a look at the sponsors for the Linux foundation.

sponsors.PNG

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Now that I think about it , really should have thought of it and put it in

OpenBSD :)
Make more of OpenBSD posts.
Thanks.