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Blocklist-Update.sh

Blocklist-Update.sh is a script that I wrote to manage blocklists from bluetack etc to be used in conjunction with Transmission torrent downloader in Linux/MacOS. The script can be taylored to work with Qbittorrent as well, but the placement of the blocklists means you'd have to redirect the blocklist to go somewhere locally manageable as Transmission uses its own blocklist directory in .config. I believe there are about 10 lists there now. It works well for my needs. It can be ran weekly using crontab in standard user profile.  To download:  blocklist-update.sh To download the others:  Github
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SPECTRE AND MELTDOWN

A few articles have already been written about these two kernel vulnerabilities within Linux. At time of this writing, several kernels have been released to kernel.org which help mitigate exploitation of the kernel via way of user apps which can then gain access to privileged, root user memory allocated for the kernel itself. Spectre and Meltdown both seem to utilize what is known as “speculative execution” to allow an attacker to see passwords or keys that the chip(processor) handles. This would allow anyone watching a free ride into your accounts. These flaws are based on the processor itself and have an affect on Windows, Mac and Linux. Sadly, the best possible solution would be to replace all the chips currently in use by PC’s, but this is not really an option for everyone. Outside of this, many applications, browsers and the like have made strides to mitigate these attacks. Microsoft has already released patches. These vulnerabilities are serious, so you should update as soon as possible. Chrome has yet to release their own mitigations, so if you’re using the browser, or any browser based on it, you can enable a flag in the backend that uses site isolation which prevents a website from seeing what is on the machine. If you’re on Manjaro Linux, you should get a kernel update today that will patch this, if you, like myself, didn’t want to wait, you can enable the unstable or testing mirrors by running sudo pacman-mirrors -b (unstable or testing) and sudo pacman -Syyu. This will ensure that your mirrors are the latest unstable and will resync the repositories as well as update the system. If you’re on Intel or a newer model AMD that supports the newer firmware packages, I’d suggest also getting AMD and Intel Specific firmware upgrades in your distribution as well. These attacks are only possible if you have malware on your system, so running a scan with some antivirus or rootkit application would be a really good thing to do. I recommend Malwarebytes if you’re on Windows. In fact, I not long ago released an article about cleaning and infected PC. Link will be below.

Notable Links:






kernel.org

Update: Pale Moon Browser is not currently vulnerable according the developer Moonchild. He fixed this in a Defense In Depth  fix in October of 2016. According to the developer, more is being added in the upcoming 27.7 release to prevent this.
 http://www.palemoon.org/

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