articles don’t mention mitigation methods.

what to disable in thunderbird to not be vulnerable to “obfuscated JavaScript file that is sent to the victim through emails in archive files.” and prevent that “The JavaScript file drops a self-copy at “C:\Users\<Username>” location with random names like “needlereportcreepy.bat”. The bat file is then executed”?

servers rarely see updates. Maybe it happens in larger firms, but not in smaller shops.

*ouch*

adding PPAs or RPM repos, or installing things from source, I’d say that number is a lot higher than 0.

Nothing wrong with that. Unlike docker that’s cryptographically protected toolchain/buildchain/depchain. Thus, a PPA owner is much less likely to get compromised.

Installing things from source in a secure environment is about as safe as you can get, when obtaining the source securely.

Docker contains that nonsense in a way that’s easy to update.

Really? Ist there already a builtin way to update all installed docker containers?

What’s uneasy about apt full-upgrade?

Package managers don’t provide a sandbox.

I didn’t say that.

average user who doesn’t run updates consistently, may add sketchy dependencies, and doesn’t audit things would be better off with Docker.

That’s false.

but they’re less likely to cause widespread issues since each is in its own sandbox.

Also false. Sandbox evasion is very easy and the next local PE kernel vulnerability only weeks away. Also VM evasion is a thing.

Basically one compromised container giving local execution is enough to pwn your complete host.

in the same way that installing a malware-laden executable isn’t an OS problem

except no one is doing that. Every major distro hast mechanisms for software supply chain security and reproducible builds.

Do your due diligence, especially if you’re not a developer and thus looking at the Dockerfiles is impractical.

You’re on to something here. If you automate that process, you end up with something we call a package manager.

it’s likely blog posts and users that are at fault.

Exactly. And sincer reviewing Dockerfiles is impractical, there’s no way docker prevents you from shooting your own foot. Distros learned that long ago: Insecure default configs or injected dependencies are a thing of the past there. With docker, those get reintroduced.

What you are saying is not new but you don’t seem to grasp the difference in risk when you run someone else’s configured environment on your system vs. manually setting them up yourself. You save a lot of time by using docker images but it comes with a price.

There’s no docker vulnerability

No need to. Like sudo doesn’t need a vulnerability when you let contributors of some repository use it on your box.

Things like snyk exist for a reason but it’s not mitigation, just monitoring.

You should stop telling people that using docker is no security problem because that’s wrong, as it adds attack surface to even the most secure projects. Sure, it saves time but things like OPs news will keep popping up in the future like it did in the past. It can’t be fixed other than just not using it in production. At least build your own containers.

Don’t forget various past issues:

• https://snyk.io/blog/top-ten-most-popular-docker-images-each-contain-at-least-30-vulnerabilities/
• https://osric.com/chris/accidental-developer/2018/12/using-docker-to-get-root-access/
• https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/docker-hub-database-hack-exposes-sensitive-data-of-190k-users/
• https://blog.alexellis.io/docker-is-deleting-open-source-images/

This entirely misses the point of Docker.

It’s just pointing out the risk of letting someone you don’t know with no legal obligations setup your complete environment.

How likely

Probably as likely as someone cracking your really secure ssh password. Still, any sane expert will recommend disabling password auth.

I only pull containers based on some official project.

How do you know they weren’t compromised?

but I don’t see anything here about Docker itself being a problem

The problem is that rootless docker is a pain and no one does it. Privileged software sideloading other software is a huge risk.

That risk now became an incident. Even if you’re not affected, the risk still remains.

always_has_been.jpg

air gapping doesn’t really help when basically any interface is an attack vector.

evil maid attacks still work.

Time to join the dark side.

You don’t need Windows. You don’t need this job. No one will ever force the Windows upon you *handwave*

great catch! Thanks for posting this.

otoh you have stuff like FreeCAD or OpenSCAD completely free and usable AND you could modify it as you please.

Back then FOSS CAD was barely usable.

Zorin

Not sure if I’d trust an OS named like a Bond villain.

Great, now find a project to apply it and collect your participation trophy. :-P

and produce tons of excellent, reviewed but useless code on the way.

Unironically Lynx and Elinks.

screw syncterm, what’s a good & secure BBS software for linux? with doors and mails and nice menu navigation, zmodem and everything…?

I remember amiexpress and prometheus from amiga times, they were a breeze to setup, configure & maintain.

world-renowned, enterprise-level antivirus software running

lol. better just use defender next time.

edit: or not use windows.

You could do some automated/scripted installation VM-image builder thingy and release that. Would probably also save some manual work for you. (bash script fetching install image & run qemu, autounattend.xml, etc. all nicely released on github.) And it’d be auditable.

that’d be an awesome way to spread malware with some VM evasion.

not sure if any 3rd-party windows install should ever be trusted. no matter what usecase.

much more important: we’d be years ahead with storage technology.