NetSecL is a security-focused distribution based on Slackware Linux. To improve the security aspect of the distribution, servers have been removed, incoming ports closed and services turned off. Additionally, a set of penetration tools has been included.

Iuri Stanchev has announced the release of NetSecL 2.4, a hardened, security-oriented distribution based on Slackware Linux: “NetSecL 2.4 released. It’s time for the new release and here are the main highlights: X.Org drivers updated to newest; X.Org autostart is now being delayed a few seconds so you could break if it is needed – mainly handy if you need to change the driver used; Metasploit is updated to its latest version; Ruby is re-included; a new kernel configuration with better support for SATA drives (IDE is still available as a module); new tools, like 0trace, Dmitry and Evilgrade included in the penetration package; Dazuko is removed and replaced by Dazuko_FS; the CruxPorts4Slack portage system was used for generating all packages tagged as NetSecL packages.” Here is the brief release announcement. Download the installation CD from here: netsecl-2.4-install.iso (675MB, MD5).

There’s just one problem. Why does the Slackware Blog exist? Without a clear purpose the Slackware Blog is bound to become outdated again. So, what do you want to see from us? What useful service can we provide?

Personally, I think that the Slackware Blog should be a place where you can come to find out what is happening in the world of Slackware at a glance. At least every other week it would be nice to get a summary of what is going on with Slackware and the major Slackware sites/projects. Just the key points from log files, community news, and major changes to key Slackware sites.

Finding out what is “important” will take some time and tweaking, but with community help the Slackware Blog can once again be useful!

Wed Jun 18 14:42:48 CDT 2008
xap/mozilla-firefox-3.0-i686-1.tgz: Upgraded to firefox-3.0.
Congratulations to the Firefox people for the nice improvements, as well as
such an impressive number of first-day downloads. We didn’t put this
out yesterday, figuring it was better to let people download from them…

Sat Jun 14 11:14:22 CDT 2008
slackware/l/jre-6u10_beta-i586-1.tgz: Upgraded to Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard
Edition Runtime Environment Version 6.0 update 10 beta. This is a BETA
VERSION and may contain problems, but it may also fix an issue with CUPS
printing. If this fix is important to you, it may be worth giving this
package a try at your own risk. For now, -current seems like the only prudent
place for this package. Hopefully we will see official 6u10 releases soon.
extra/jdk-6/jdk-6u10_beta-i586-1.tgz: Upgraded to Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard
Edition Development Kit Version 6.0 update 10 beta. This is a BETA VERSION
but should fix a problem with CUPS printing. See above.

Tue May 27 22:12:01 CDT 2008
a/mkinitrd-1.3.2-i486-3.tgz: Initialize RAID earlier so that the combination
of RAID+LUKS+LVM works. Thanks to Eric Hameleers.
xap/rdesktop-1.6.0-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to rdesktop-1.6.0.
According to the rdesktop ChangeLog, this contains a:
“* Fix for potential vulnerability against compromised/malicious servers
(reported by iDefense)”
This package build also includes the new alsa driver (–with-sound=alsa),
though I couldn’t get local sound redirection. Perhaps it was just my
command line error though, so the driver remains included for testing.
For more information on the security issue, see:

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-1801

(* Security fix *)
extra/ktorrent/ktorrent-2.2.7-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to ktorrent-2.2.7.

Wed May 14 17:22:14 CDT 2008
extra/slackpkg/slackpkg-2.70.4-noarch-1.tgz:
Upgraded to slackpkg 2.70.4-noarch-1. This fixes a bug where the “x86″
ARCH was not recognized in a package name, leading to the kernel-headers
package not getting properly upgraded. Thanks to Piter Punk! -:)

Wed May 7 16:13:31 CDT 2008
n/php-5.2.6-i486-1.tgz:
Upgraded to PHP 5.2.6.
This version of PHP contains many fixes and enhancements. Some of the fixes
are security related, and the PHP release announcement provides this list:
* Fixed possible stack buffer overflow in the FastCGI SAPI identified by
Andrei Nigmatulin.
* Fixed integer overflow in printf() identified by Maksymilian Aciemowicz.
* Fixed security issue detailed in CVE-2008-0599 identified by Ryan Permeh.
* Fixed a safe_mode bypass in cURL identified by Maksymilian Arciemowicz.
* Properly address incomplete multibyte chars inside escapeshellcmd()
identified by Stefan Esser.
* Upgraded bundled PCRE to version 7.6
When last checked, CVE-2008-0599 was not yet open. However, additional
information should become available at this URL:

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-0599

The list reproduced above, as well as additional information about other
fixes in PHP 5.2.6 may be found in the PHP release announcement here:

http://www.php.net/releases/5_2_6.php

xap/mozilla-thunderbird-2.0.0.14-i686-1.tgz:
Upgraded to thunderbird-2.0.0.14.
This upgrade fixes some more security bugs.
For more information, see:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vulnerabilities.html#thunderbird

(* Security fix *)

Thu May 1 13:36:34 CDT 2008
Slackware 12.1 is released as -stable. Again, huge thanks to everybody
who pitched in and helped with bug reports, patches, testing, suggestions,
other comments, and everything else. Without this valuable input, Slackware
would be nowhere near what it is today. Special thanks to the CREW, to the
people developing and testing for slackbuilds.org (where many of Slackware’s
future additions are first built and tested), and to everyone on
linuxquestions.org, various #slackware or ##slackware IRC channels, other
Slackware related web sites, and other places where the community shares their
needs and concerns with the team. On behalf of everyone here, thanks.
We think you’ll enjoy this new release, and hope that you’ll find it to be
much more than 0.1 better than Slackware 12.0.
Have fun! -P.
extra/slackpkg/slackpkg-2.70.3-noarch-2.tgz: Updated the version in the
slackpkg script from 2.70.2 to 2.70.3.