By the way, our first two publications on evaluating #OpenBSD mitigations are out. Both of these papers evaluate some amd64 anti-ROP mitigations: specifically changing the register selection order and semantically equivalent rewriting of instructions that may produce a potential polymorphic gadget instruction. This tracks a paper by mortimer@ back in 2019 at AsiaBSDCon.

The TL;DR is "OpenBSD can shrink binaries a little and gain a little performance without any security loss simply by reverting these mitigations." The mitigations did not hold up to independent evaluation.

The first paper did an exact 1:1 port of these mitigations to FreeBSD and found that register reallocation eliminates only about 0.3% of unique gadgets, for a 0.5% increase in binary size (mortimer@ claimed 6% reduction and "entirely free"). It is useless at best but more likely actively detrimental, as it produces a false sense of security. It also found the instruction rewriting reduces unique gadgets by about 3.5% with a binary size increase of about 1.8% (mortimer@ claimed 5% reduction with 0.15% binary size increase).

We then did a separate implementation of the instruction rewriting mitigation to GCC in the second paper. Our GCC implementation does the older <xchg; op; xchg> dance, as that's what mortimer@'s paper described. This is way worse; producing about a 3% performance hit for no security benefit at all.

The only part of both mitigations worth saving is for basic arithmetic, OpenBSD LLVM now takes advantage of the fact that basic arithmetic has two forms. For example, the newer instruction rewriting mitigation turns
addq %rax, %rbx (48 01 c3)
into
{load} addq %rax, %rbx (48 03 d8)

The new instruction rewriting mitigation is genuinely free in terms of binary size and execution speed, but doesn't move the security needle, so this one can stay as it is harmless. Other rewritings still have the flaw of increasing binary size and reducing performance for no security benefit.

Anyhow feel free to read the papers:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11458911
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/405728967_A_Final_Return_for_OpenBSD_Anti-Return-Oriented_Programming_Mitigations

#BSD #FreeBSD #NetBSD #DragonFlyBSD #Linux #Unix #security #cybersecurity

After being locked away for 10+ years in the Cloud; it's so refreshing, and frustrating to deal with all of the little things; like filesystems, database replication and locks, replacing fans and NICs, debugging OOMs, and crashing daemons on #FreeBSD, #OmniOS, and #Linux;

I feel like everything moves a little more slowly and sustainably this way; but most of all - I really missed getting lost in the details.

Gambonanza masterfully combines Balatro and chess and it's out now https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/gambonanza-masterfully-combines-balatro-and-chess-and-its-out-now/

#Gambonanza #IndieGames #PCGaming #Linux

Dear #Linux,

It is frustrating not having SIGINFO when troubleshooting network problems.

Annoyed,

Someone who prefers a much better networking stack

Why is #Linux like a religion? Everyone thinks their distro is the one true path, and they’ll die on that hill usually mid `apt upgrade`

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟲/𝟬𝟴 (Valuable News - 2026/06/08) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/06/08/valuable-news-2026-06-08/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟲/𝟬𝟴 (Valuable News - 2026/06/08) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/06/08/valuable-news-2026-06-08/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

22 Uhr Abends, und mir fällt auf: `tldr` statt `man` ist wie der Unterschied zwischen "ich erkläre dir die ganze Philosophie des Befehls" und "hier sind die 5 Beispiele, die du wirklich brauchst".

`tldr tar` hat mir mehr Lebenszeit gerettet als jeder Energy-Drink. Endlich entpacke ich Archive ohne im Kopf nach der richtigen Buchstabensuppe zu kramen. 🗜️

Installiert via Paketmanager, gibt's für fast alles.

#Linux #CLI #FOSS

So I've been using Shotwell as my photo organizer for many years. But it's old, creaky and only barely supported.

What should I use instead? What do you use? I need:

* Photo management (sorting, ranking, deleting)

* Handles 10k+ images fine

* edit with external editor (gimp)

* RAW support

* Runs locally on Linux

* Ideally, import from camera

* Ideally, export to Flickr

* Ideally, a way to export from shotwell/import to the new organizer

Any ideas?

#fedihelp #photography #linux

@paul

There's also the part where you discover the Linux Documentation Project and the joy of doco that is convincing but a quarter century or more out of date when you check all of the version numbers of the stuff that it tells you about. (-:

@rl_dane
#Linux #LinuxDocumentationProject

sh
rlwrap ed

Arrow keys, command history, Ctrl-R search, and readline editing for programs that never had those features.

One of those small Unix tools that's easy to overlook.

#unix #linux #ed #commandline

xterm.vt100.translations: #override \
    Ctrl Shift <Key> equal: larger-vt-font() \n\
    Ctrl <Key> minus: smaller-vt-font() \n\
    Ctrl <Key> 0: set-vt-font(d) \n\
    Ctrl Shift <Key> C: copy-selection(CLIPBOARD) \n\
    Ctrl Shift <Key> V: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD)

xterm(1) on #Linux or #BSD doesn’t support easy font resize and CUA copy-paste? uhh.

How to add things such as wget and apt to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS in Linuxulator on FreeBSD?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1tz7dln/how_to_add_things_such_as_wget_and_apt_to_ubuntu/

What's the easiest way to install apt, in the absence of wget?

Alternatively: what's the easiest way to install wget, in the absence of apt?

#FreeBSD #apt #Linux #Linuxulator #Ubuntu

The NetBSD 🚩 Foundation wrapped up its 2026 AGM! 🚀 Quick recap of milestones & future plans:
📦 NetBSD-11 (RC4) is on the horizon.
🌳 The massive migration from CVS to Git/Mercurial is officially complete!
🎓 #GSoC2026: 5 students onboarded (working on Wi-Fi stack upgrades, porting the #Enlightenment desktop @E , and more).
🛡️ Security: Onboarding as a MITRE CNA, preparing for the EU CRA, and enforcing "Anti-Slop" (no unreviewed AI code) protocols.
🔬 Long-term: Long-term plans to use formal verification tools, with Core open to funding active code audits.

Full log: https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/annual_general_meeting_2026

#NetBSD #OpenSource #RunBSD #GSoC #Security #Linux #antiaislop #FormalVerifcation

Don't tell me you think #Linux #Documentation is adequate.

Go install CachyOS and somehow manage to change both the console font in Limine, and upon bootup, and then tell me the documentation is adequate.

I give up. I'll just squint while logging in. You'd think stuff would be smart enough to say "Gee, the screen is 1080p, maybe let's not use an 8x16 console font. 🤦‍♂️

Hello, BSD and Linux friends!

Don't miss @jana 's great presentation later today: "How is FreeBSD different from Linux, what does it do well and why should I care?"

The live stream can be found here: https://streaming.media.ccc.de/gpn24/vortragssaal

The recording will be available afterwards in: https://media.ccc.de/c/gpn24

https://cfp.gulas.ch/gpn24/talk/ZSNZ89/

#Linux #BSD #FreeBSD #RunBSD #Linux #OpenSOurce

This World Environment Day, combat e-waste by recycling your old tech with #NetBSD. Don't let planned obsolescence dictate your hardware's lifespan. Give that old machine a second life as a rock-solid firewall, file server, or lightweight workstation. 🖥️🌱
#WorldEnvironmentDay #NetBSD #RunBSD #RetroComputing #EcoFriendly #FOSS #Linux

#linux #gcc #clang #c #cpp #poll 1) do you have a program called "a.out" in your home folder, and if so 2) do you remember what it was

#Vim carnival this month: "The motion that changed everything".

Write about it on your #blog, and send me a link that I will add to this post

#editor #neovim #terminal #shell #opensource #linux #BSD #mastodon #fediverse
https://lazybea.rs/vim-carnival-202606

Which Linux distros have officially taken a stand against AI in their OS?

#Linux #NoAI

The most annoying part of systemd?

"A start/stop job is running.... blah.. blah..." and wait for who knows how long in spite of what is on the screen.

I can _tolerate_ a lot but this type of thing getting in my way really pisses me off.

#Linux #systemd

War, climate among high priority topics at Davos meeting

#comic #unix_surrealism #linux #art #mastoart #computers #bash #dillo #lgbt

Alt...

FUNHOLE CONTENT REVIEW CUM PUBLISHING YOU WILL FUCK COMPUTERS AND YOU WILL LIKE IT --- LINUX --- 'How girls take it when they are alone' sudo rm -rofl am i rite xd actually, ai in the kernel is natural and prevents prostate cancer gay? 6 desktop environments you must try! people exist :-( colorado support group one free session is dillo fatphobic? [deep dive]

Poor man's calc (more like bc wrapper):
```
calc ()
{
echo "$@" | tr -d ',₹' | bc -l
}
```

The `tr -d ',₹'` used to remove unwanted stuff that i often copy from emails or pdf and then pass everything to the bc for actual calculations.

#unix #linux #tips #tricks

Alt...

My bash terminal window displaying a Linux or Unix CLI. The command `type -a calc` to display the definition of a bash function named calc, which removes commas and the other symbol from input before passing it to the bc calculator tool. Finally, I demonstrates the function by running calc '10,000.5+₹5000', resulting in the output 15000.5.