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General discussionLinux Mint(35 posts)(35 posts)
(35 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 22, 2016
I have just noticed that Linux Mint page is offline. Apparently they had some problems at the weekend, don't know when its going to be up again:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/02/linux-mint-hit-by-malware-infection-on-its-website-and-forum-after-hack-attack/
Posted February 22, 2016
Out of everyone to attack, they choose Mint? Any Ideas on the motivation?

oh and if anyone is wondering, there is a way to check if you're running the infected system. There is a file in "/var/lib" called "man.cy" that is the back door ... "/var/lib/man.cy"
Post edited February 22, 2016 by coryrj1995
Posted February 22, 2016
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coryrj1995: Out of everyone to attack, they choose Mint? Any Ideas on the motivation?
Mint is one of the most popular distributions (if not the most popular), with its Ubuntu heritage, support by third parties, and more "traditional" user interface.
Post edited February 22, 2016 by Maighstir
Posted February 22, 2016
They exploited a vulnerability in WordPress to replace the links to the Mint Cinnamon 64bit .iso with links to their own compromised one which has a backdoor built-in. Fortunately it was spotted and taken down & alerts were put out very quickly.

I have a few links to some mirrors of the proper versions in case anyone needs them:

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/17.3/
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.linuxmint.com/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/17.3/
http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/linuxmint/stable/17.3/
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coryrj1995: Out of everyone to attack, they choose Mint? Any Ideas on the motivation?
Mint is one of the most popular Linux distros so it makes sense for scum to target them in order to try to compromise as many users as possible.
Posted February 22, 2016
I'm glad that I decided to switch back to Ubuntu shortly after Mint publicly announced that their future builds were going to based on the Ubuntu LTS releases. I've settled upon Ubuntu Studio with Mate Desktop and Mint Menu installed for my own personal preference and ease of use. One could also install Cinnamon desktop on a Ubuntu based install for another "Linux Mint like" desktop. The Ubuntu Sources List Generator allows one to quickly add commonly used repositories. Or one could install either Mate or Cinnamon on a Debian base install and tweak repositories with the Debian Sources List Generator for yet another "Linux Mint like" desktop.
Posted February 22, 2016
The price of success.
Posted February 22, 2016
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Smannesman: The price of success.
Yes indeed. Hope he gets it all fixed soon.
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adamhm: They exploited a vulnerability in WordPress to replace the links to the Mint Cinnamon 64bit .iso with links to their own compromised one which has a backdoor built-in. Fortunately it was spotted and taken down & alerts were put out very quickly.

I have a few links to some mirrors of the proper versions in case anyone needs them:

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/17.3/
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.linuxmint.com/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/17.3/
http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/linuxmint/stable/17.3/
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coryrj1995: Out of everyone to attack, they choose Mint? Any Ideas on the motivation?
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adamhm: Mint is one of the most popular Linux distros so it makes sense for scum to target them in order to try to compromise as many users as possible.
Thanks for the mirrors, hopefully he will get it all sorted out soon.
Post edited February 22, 2016 by nightcraw1er.488
Posted February 22, 2016
So... you're saying that my recently obtained Rosa version of Mint is compromised. I've downloaded the thing two or three days ago and installed it...
Posted February 22, 2016
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PookaMustard: So... you're saying that my recently obtained Rosa version of Mint is compromised. I've downloaded the thing two or three days ago and installed it...
Possibly... the link to the fake .iso was only up for a short time though so maybe not.

If I were you I'd test the checksum of the downloaded .iso & see if it matches the checksum provided officially (check the links to the mirrors I posted above) - if they do then it's fine, if not then you have the fake one. You could also boot into the live environment of the version you obtained and check for /var/lib/man.cy - if it exists then the .iso is fake.
Posted February 22, 2016
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PookaMustard: So... you're saying that my recently obtained Rosa version of Mint is compromised. I've downloaded the thing two or three days ago and installed it...
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adamhm: Possibly... the link to the fake .iso was only up for a short time though so maybe not.

If I were you I'd test the checksum of the downloaded .iso & see if it matches the checksum provided officially (check the links to the mirrors I posted above) - if they do then it's fine, if not then you have the fake one. You could also boot into the live environment of the version you obtained and check for /var/lib/man.cy - if it exists then the .iso is fake.
I'd like to do the latter version without going firsthand into Mint itself... so is there any ext4 file explorer made for Windows that I can use to check this?
Posted February 22, 2016
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adamhm: Possibly... the link to the fake .iso was only up for a short time though so maybe not.

If I were you I'd test the checksum of the downloaded .iso & see if it matches the checksum provided officially (check the links to the mirrors I posted above) - if they do then it's fine, if not then you have the fake one. You could also boot into the live environment of the version you obtained and check for /var/lib/man.cy - if it exists then the .iso is fake.
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PookaMustard: I'd like to do the latter version without going firsthand into Mint itself... so is there any ext4 file explorer made for Windows that I can use to check this?
How-To Geek: 3 Ways to Access Your Linux Partitions From Windows
Posted February 22, 2016
There are checksum files in the same folder as the images. The file that contains the sha256 sums is signed with gpg. If everybody would check the integrety of the images and the checksum file, there wouldn't be a problem.

I admit that I'm not sure that I've checked the signatures every time…
Posted February 22, 2016
Man, this sucks big time. I'm hoping they'll make a fast recovery and the revamped Linux Mint website is going to be simpler and more secure.

With all their success and the media attention they've been getting, they've become fair game for any illicit party out there.

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PookaMustard: I'd like to do the latter version without going firsthand into Mint itself..
Let me know what version you're using and I can give you an md5 of any of my .isos (I've downloaded all versions two days after their release via torrents, so was not affected by any hijacks).
Post edited February 22, 2016 by WinterSnowfall
Posted February 22, 2016
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adamhm: Possibly... the link to the fake .iso was only up for a short time though so maybe not.

If I were you I'd test the checksum of the downloaded .iso & see if it matches the checksum provided officially (check the links to the mirrors I posted above) - if they do then it's fine, if not then you have the fake one. You could also boot into the live environment of the version you obtained and check for /var/lib/man.cy - if it exists then the .iso is fake.
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PookaMustard: I'd like to do the latter version without going firsthand into Mint itself... so is there any ext4 file explorer made for Windows that I can use to check this?
If you don't want to boot the .iso and check there (perfectly safe to do this if you use a VM with networking disabled) then it's better to compare the checksums.
Posted February 22, 2016
So sad to hear this :( Linux MInt has one of the biggest LInux communities and afaik no commercial company support so this made them a perfect target and it feels scary to know that hackers are turning and eye on linux now :(
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionLinux Mint(35 posts)(35 posts)
(35 posts)