14 DAY TRIAL // Manjaro 0.8.9, a Linux distribution based on well-tested snapshots of the Arch Linux repositories and 100% compatible with Arch, has received another update pack, the fourth one.
Manjaro developers usually launch several update packs for the latest stable release of their distribution, bringing new packages and some new Linux kernels. This is very common for Manjaro operating systems and the developers are careful to keep the distributions up to date.
Just like most of the Linux variants that incorporated OpenSSL into their structure, Manjaro was also exposed to the Heartbleed bug, and its developers had to update it with the latest OpenSSL package.
The announcement for the most recent update pack for Manjaro slipped by the radar unnoticed, but this is a very important upgrade and users need to know about it.
“A vulnerability has been discovered in OpenSSL’s support for the TLS/DTLS Hearbeat extension. Up to 64KB of memory from either client or server can be recovered by an attacker This vulnerability might allow an attacker to compromise the private key and other sensitive data in memory.”
“According to the currently available information, private keys should be considered as compromised and regenerated as soon as possible. More details will be communicated at a later time. All users are urged to upgrade their openssl packages and restart applications as soon as possible,” reads the official announcement.
Unfortunately, it's not enough to upgrade OpenSSL to the latest version, and private keys are no longer secure. It's recommended that you upgrade your system as soon as possible.
This is just one of the multitudes of changes that have been implemented. The developers have also announced that a new Netrunner release has been made available with the help of the guys from Blue-Systems, the new BFQ I/O scheduler is now used by default on all kernels, support has been added for the 3.14 series of the Linux kernel, KDE SC has been updated to version 4.12.4, and more.
Here are all the kernel that users have access to from Manjaro: 3.4.86 (longterm stable kernel), 3.8.13.21 (LTS maintained by Canonical), 3.10.36, (default in Manjaro), 3.11.10 (LTS maintained by Canonical), 3.12.17 (default in Manjaro 0.8.10), 3.13.9, and 3.14.0.
It's expected that more update packs are on their way, but it's impossible to predict when they will arrive, because there is no precise schedule in place.
More details about this release can be found in the official announcement. You can download Manjaro 0.8.9 right now from Softpedia.