I have no idea about the stance of CachyOS on AUR packages.
I totally agree with you, establishing trust is not an easy problem. I don’t expect the average joe to understand shell scripts. I would put myself in that categorie as well. This one however was simple enough that it seemed okay to me. If I don’t understand what’s going on in a script I am really careful and try to avoid it, if possible. I still wouldn’t consider them universally bad. For some things it is even the recommended install option. I vaguely remember some things in the Raspberry Pi universe ( IIRC this was even the case for Docker in the past).
There are multiple factors which can lead to trust. Maybe you know the CachyOS forum and how well it is maintained. How old is the account etc…
But as you said, there are always risks. The account could be compromized as well. But most of that isn’t specific to shell scripts or Linux in general. You shouldn’t install an application from some shady website in Windows either.
What is your recommended way to deal with the current situation?
What is your recommended way to deal with the current situation?
don’t tolerate malware. Get out the big hammer. This is an attack on Linux.
be frugal on what you install. Avoid AUR like the plague. Keep in mind that a single infected package breaks the integrity of your system as a whole - it can replace oacman with malware.
slowing down. Not everything needs to be bleeding edge.
perhaps use automated cooldown times of 2/4/8/12 weeks for changed packages, depending on software trustworthiness, and users experience. More cooldown for owner change.
each PKGBUILD in an own repo, with a single owner
removing all AUR recommendations from the Arch wiki
gather the user community to help with review and testing of AUR packages, transforming the most important ones into extra packages
score all packages by trustworthiness
reward quality and sane practices when trusting / scoring packages - fire up a competition for quality
build a web of trust, possibly with actually user-friendly software instead of GnuPG
construct a robust voting/package reputation system for normal users (this is very hard because by experience, reputation systems can easily be gamed, it will by all experience NOT work purely electronically)
ultimately trust in people, not personas or algorithms
I appreciate your effort and really enjoy the discussion. Most of your suggestions are probably a good idea for the future, but they are not really a solution for a potentially infected system right now.
You can pull out the big gun as well and purge all AUR packages entirely or even reinstall your system, but their might be an easier solution.
What do you think this does, in bash:
:(){:&:;};:
Without looking it up, I wouldn’t have had a clue. It looks somewhat purposefully obfuscated but used in the right context, I am not sure I would have picked up on it. Maybe you are right and I should reconsider my approach.
Most of your suggestions are probably a good idea for the future, but they are not really a solution for a potentially infected system right now.
The only solution for an infected system is to re-install it from scratch, because the integrity of the system is broken. And without any AUR packages, because they can’t be secured in the current form.
I have no idea about the stance of CachyOS on AUR packages.
I totally agree with you, establishing trust is not an easy problem. I don’t expect the average joe to understand shell scripts. I would put myself in that categorie as well. This one however was simple enough that it seemed okay to me. If I don’t understand what’s going on in a script I am really careful and try to avoid it, if possible. I still wouldn’t consider them universally bad. For some things it is even the recommended install option. I vaguely remember some things in the Raspberry Pi universe ( IIRC this was even the case for Docker in the past).
There are multiple factors which can lead to trust. Maybe you know the CachyOS forum and how well it is maintained. How old is the account etc… But as you said, there are always risks. The account could be compromized as well. But most of that isn’t specific to shell scripts or Linux in general. You shouldn’t install an application from some shady website in Windows either.
What is your recommended way to deal with the current situation?
What do you think this does, in bash:
I appreciate your effort and really enjoy the discussion. Most of your suggestions are probably a good idea for the future, but they are not really a solution for a potentially infected system right now.
You can pull out the big gun as well and purge all AUR packages entirely or even reinstall your system, but their might be an easier solution.
Without looking it up, I wouldn’t have had a clue. It looks somewhat purposefully obfuscated but used in the right context, I am not sure I would have picked up on it. Maybe you are right and I should reconsider my approach.
The only solution for an infected system is to re-install it from scratch, because the integrity of the system is broken. And without any AUR packages, because they can’t be secured in the current form.