2016-09-24 (last updated at September 26th, 2016) Michael BoelenLinux, Software, Vulnerabilities 4 comments

Show vulnerable packages on Arch Linux with arch-audit

Vulnerable Software Packages on Arch Linux Vulnerabilities happen and are usually fairly quickly fixed. This is also true for Arch Linux. This rolling distribution can be considered to be always up-to-date, as it uses the latest versions of software packages from the upstream. When there is an update, it doesn’t take long that it becomes available and can be installed with package manager pacman. One problem that remained was the inability to quickly test if you have any vulnerable packages. After all […]

2016-09-19 (last updated at March 12th, 2017) Michael BoelenSoftware, System Administration 4 comments

Discover to which package a file belongs to

Related Packages and Files Sometimes you want to know the related package of a file, before installation, or when it is already there. This is of great help during system hardening or general system cleanups. In this article we have a look at several ways to determine the relationships between files and the package they belong to. We have gathered this information for multiple Linux distributions. CentOS, Fedora, RHEL Show files for RPM packages rpm -qlp /path/to/file.rpm Show files for packages on […]

2016-01-25 (last updated at October 12th, 2016) Michael BoelenSoftware Leave a comment

Showing Available Security Updates with DNF

Checking Security Updates for your Software Packages DNF is the default package manager since Fedora 22. As it is considered to be a better version of YUM, some of our Lynis users asked for DNF support. With focus on auditing and security patching, we definitely wanted to see that for ourselves. While building support, I’ve gathered the most important commands. In this blog post we will have a look how we can leverage the DNF output to show only the […]

2015-02-15 (last updated at June 26th, 2017) Michael BoelenSystem Administration 2 comments

Updating all OpenBSD packages with pkg_add

Using pkg_add Keeping your systems stable and secure Every system needs to stay up-to-date with its packages, including OpenBSD. Most OpenBSD users already use pkg_add for the installation of packages. This utility can also be used for package upgrades. Option 1: Use /etc/installurl Newer OpenBSD versions use the file /etc/installurl to select the mirror for pkg_add. Option 2: PKG_PATH The first thing to do is defining your PKG_PATH. This will usually be the address of a FTP or HTTP server, which […]

2014-10-19 (last updated at October 20th, 2014) Michael BoelenAuditing, Software, System Administration Leave a comment

Yum plugins: Available plugins and built-in security support

Enhancing yum Determine available plugins and built-in security support To enhance the support in our auditing tool Lynis, we wanted to know if yum supports security related functions by using a plugin or having it as built-in functionality. Yum Yum, or Yellowdog Updater Modified, is a software management tool for Linux based systems. Usually it is used on systems running SuSE or Red Hat based (like RHEL, Fedora or CentOS). Plugins extend the functionality of yum, to improve its functionality. […]

2014-06-21 (last updated at October 20th, 2014) Michael BoelenAuditing, Linux, Software

Audit SuSE with zypper: vulnerable packages

Audit (Open)SuSE with zypper: vulnerable packages Proper software management is an important part in keeping your system secured. Acting on time is important, especially when network services have discovered security vulnerabilities. Vulnerable packages Usually packages with known security vulnerabilities, get priority and updates are soon available. The risk in installing these packages is fairly low, as they don’t introduce new features. Instead, they fix the related security hole, which sometimes is nothing more than 1 single character! Check your system […]