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k_o_t@lemmy.ml

AUR is cool... but scary (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by OneCardboardBox@lemmy.sdf.org to c/archlinux@lemmy.ml

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Last night while updating my system, I noticed that a random aur package my system depends on was orphaned in the aur. It's some random deep-down dependency of another AUR package, and it's not received any upstream commits in a while. Nice and stable, just needed an owner. I decided to adopt the package before someone else did.

It was kinda scary how simple it is to adopt an orphaned package. Create AUR account... click an email link... Done. If someone wanted to squat the package for malicious purposes, it would be stupidly simple.

I get that this is a problem for all community repos, not just AUR (npm, anyone?), but it's still an unsettling prospect. I feel like it goes unacknowledged some times.

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[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

In fact, exactly that has already happened in past.
https://thehackernews.com/2018/07/arch-linux-aur-malware.html

On June 7, a malicious user nicknamed "xeactor" adopted an orphaned package (software without an active maintainer) called "acroread" which functions as a PDF viewer, and modified it to add malicious code.

So definitely check what you're installing.