Welcome to the monthly update for openSUSE Tumbleweed for April 2024. This month began after addressing last month’s supply chain attack against xz compressi...

Welcome to the monthly update for openSUSE Tumbleweed for April 2024. This month began after addressing last month’s supply chain attack against xz compression library for the rolling release. An explanation of that XZ Backdoor, how it was address and what was learned can be found on news.opensuse.org.

A flurry of updates, enhancements, and crucial security fixes arrived in openSUSE’s rolling release this month as the busy season for conferences begins. Should readers desire a more frequent amount of information about snapshot updates, readers are encouraged to subscribe to the openSUSE Factory mailing list.

New Features and Enhancements

  • Linux Kernel: The month of April had a few kernel updates. Notable changes with the 6.8.5 version included mitigation for Branch History Injection (BHI) vulnerabilities, improvements to Spectre mitigation, updates for Intel graphics drivers, fixes for SMB client vulnerabilities and fixes for RISC-V architecture. Version 6.8.7 included updates and fixes for AMD display drivers, Intel i915 driver, x86 speculative execution vulnerabilities, arm 64 device tree files, DRM drivers, filesystem handling, and more.
  • KDE Frameworks 6.1.0: The numpy package introduces enhanced support for structured arrays and flexible indexing, while pandas incorporates improved handling of missing data and new methods for data manipulation. Additionally, the matplotlib package offers enhanced customization options for plot aesthetics. New algorithms for machine learning tasks in scikit-learn were included in the update.
  • KDE Gear 24.02.2: The KDE Gear 24.02.2 update encompasses a wide range of fixes and enhancements, including resolving issues with tag addition functionality in Akonadi, addressing translated shortcut and icon appearance problems in Akregator, various improvements and fixes in ark such as disabling RAR4 compression method, multiple fixes in Elisa including volume slider and track playback issues and numerous enhancements in Konsole. There were fixes for calendar selection and the todo view updates in Korganizer.
  • PHP8 8.3.6: There were significant bug fixes, security patches and improvements across different components including in the update. Besides fixes with Core, DOM, GD, Opcache and Session other fixes include:
    • FPM: Fixes have been applied to address issues with the configuration test running twice in daemonized mode and incorrect checks in fpm_shm_free().
    • Gettext: Fixes have been made to address issues with dcgettext and dcngettext calls with specific configurations.
    • MySQLnd: Various fixes have been applied, including correcting handshake response and charset length checks.
    • Random: Compatibility improvements have been introduced for PHP versions prior to 8.2, and issues with global Mt19937 reset have been resolved.
    • Standard: Validation has been added for specific characters in the mail() function, and various bug fixes have been implemented, including addressing command injection and cookie bypass vulnerabilities. (Noted in CVE-2024-1874, CVE-2024-2756 and fixing issues with mb_encode_mimeheader and password_verify with CVE-2024-3096 and CVE-2024-2757.
  • Mozilla Firefox 125.0.2. The browser brought new features such as:
    • Support for AV1 codec in Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) for improved video playback quality.
    • Enhanced PDF viewer capabilities with text highlighting.
    • Introduction of the URL Paste Suggestion feature, improving usability by allowing quick navigation to URLs copied to the clipboard.
    • Multiple critical security fixes addressing vulnerabilities like out-of-bounds reads and use-after-free errors that enhance browser security.
  • dracut: There were improvements such as the addition of tpm2.target and systemd-tpm2-generator and several memory leak fixes.
  • ffmpeg: Versions 4 and 6 took care of some video handling issues and made fixes for memory leaks with improved EOF handling. The updates addresses:
  • sqlite3: An update from version 3.45.2 to 3.45.3 addresses a long-standing bug affecting the accuracy of trigger responses in certain UPSERT operations to ensure for more reliable database operations.
  • Flatpak: The 1.15.8 update had some security fixes to prevent sandbox escape and various other usability improvements.
  • Python3.11: The 3.11.9 version had various security patches and bug fixes, such as addressing CVE-2023-52425, updating bundled libexpat to version 2.6.0, fixing possible crashes in collections.deque.index() and improves SSLContext behavior.
  • Cppcheck: New checks in version 2.14.0 include:
    • eraseIteratorOutOfBounds: Warns about calling erase() on an iterator that is out of bounds, enhancing the robustness of code.
    • returnByReference: Warns when a large class member is returned by value from a getter function, which can impact performance and memory usage.

Other Package Updates

  • SDL2: Version 2.30.2 introduces support for various new controllers, including the 6-button SEGA Mega Drive Control Pad and the Hori Fighting Stick EX2.
  • Cryptsetup: Version 2.7.2 addressed several issues, including fixes for OPAL device formatting and activation.
  • SpamAssassin: A package with a great name, version 4.0.1 enhances URL shortener link redirection handling and improved TxRep locking management, which bolsters email security for users.

Bug Fixes

Conclusion

The month of April 2024 had a blend of feature enhancements and crucial security fixes. From improved gaming support with SDL2 to strengthened encryption practices with Cryptsetup, users benefited from a host of updates aimed at enhancing functionality, stability and security. Other packages to update in Tumbleweed during the month were Mesa, GTK4, transactional-update and more .

For those Tumbleweed users that want to contribute, subscribe to the openSUSE Factory mailing list. The openSUSE team encourages users to continue participating through bug reports, feature suggestions and discussions.

Contributing to openSUSE Tumbleweed

Your contributions and feedback make openSUSE Tumbleweed better with every update. Whether reporting bugs, suggesting features, or participating in community discussions, your involvement is highly valued.

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