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Tails Linux 2.5 is out (Aug 2, 2016).
Tails is a live system that aims to preserve your privacy and anonymity. It helps you to use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship almost anywhere you go and on any computer but leaving no trace unless you ask it to explicitly.
It is a complete operating system designed to be used from a DVD, USB stick, or SD card independently of the computer's original operating system. It is Free Software and based on Debian GNU/Linux.
Tails comes with several built-in applications pre-configured with security in mind: web browser, instant messaging client, email client, office suite, image and sound editor, etc
= Announcements:
https://tails.boum.org/news/version_2.5/index.en.html
https://twitter.com/Tails_live/status/760516381905448968
https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/amnesia-news/2016-August/000110.html
https://twitter.com/torproject/status/760516806587117568
[Continues...]
Useful links:
- Download / Burning Tails on a DVD: (See also: "Direct Downloads")
https://tails.boum.org/install/dvd/index.en.html- Download and verify using OpenPGP:
https://tails.boum.org/install/download/openpgp/index.en.html- Download / and verify the Tails ISO image (#2):
https://tails.boum.org/install/download/- Numerous security holes in Tails 2.4:
https://tails.boum.org/security/Numerous_security_holes_in_2.4/index.en.html- About:
https://tails.boum.org/about/index.en.html- News:
https://tails.boum.org/news/index.en.html- Getting Started:
https://tails.boum.org/getting_started/index.en.html- First steps with Tails:
https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/index.en.html- Documentation:
https://tails.boum.org/doc/index.en.html
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday August 03 2016, @07:29PM
[...] when I tried to get them to evaluate the risk of distributing spyware, they flatly refused to discuss the subject at all.
No one quantified the risk. However, someone with a boum.org e-mail address did respond: [boum.org]
We have actual users. If they can't use Tails on their current, real-world hardware, then likely they'll use something else, that has just the same amount of binary firmware blobs, except it won't have any of Tails properties that some people find worthwhile.
There used to be something called Anonym.OS which was like Tails, but based on OpenBSD. The OpenBSD project at the time (and still, I assume) did not include closed-source drivers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonym.OS [wikipedia.org]
I'm not aware of any OS similar to Tails that is actively maintained.
When one has a choice in the matter, choosing hardware for which there are open-source drivers will obviate the need for proprietary drivers. Hence they won't be loaded.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:14AM
OpenBSD has the same problem as Linux: it distributes non-free, sourceless firmwares. Last time I personally checked there was at least one such network driver within the base install. I maintain that some of these network blobs already contain spyware, and that all of them should be regarded as containing malware. In the modern legal climate, when the law enforcement insists on backdoors, and prosecutors go after reverse engineers rather than actual crackers like SONY and Amazon, who break into millions of computers in broad daylight, it it crazy to suppose these blobs are spyware-free. Tails devs, just like many other parties ostensibly concerned with user privacy and security, apparently think this argument is rubbish (alternatively, they are in cahoots with the spies). In my personal view, they are deceiving their users, not just themselves, and no one is safe using their products.
A member of Tails dev team indeed replied to me, and you posted a relevant quote. This does not address any of my questions, though, it just explains, the best I can tell, that their users do not care, so Tails devs do not care either. That is fine, but I still think Tails devs should know better than their users about privacy and security, but it appears they do not, or may be they think Tails popularity is more important than informing users that their kernel is compromised by multiple malevolent parties on day 0. This is flagrant incompetence at best, and with respect to their main goal, too.
My advice to privacy seekers, stick with free+libre software.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday August 04 2016, @01:19AM
OpenBSD has the same problem as Linux: it distributes non-free, sourceless firmwares.
You may be right--I haven't personally checked. Do you recall which driver it is that has the binary blob? A 2006 On Lamp article said:
OpenBSD attempts to convince vendors to release documentation and often reverse-engineers around the need for blobs. OpenBSD remains blob-free.
--http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2006/04/27/openbsd-3_9.html [onlamp.com]
[...] it [is] crazy to suppose these blobs are spyware-free.
[...]
My advice to privacy seekers, stick with free+libre software.
The blobs, as I said, are loaded only on hardware that requires them. If we choose hardware that doesn't require loadable firmware or a closed-source driver, that hardware may instead have closed-source firmware that is burned into a ROM; it too may harbour malware. The Talos Secure Workstation [raptorengineering.com] comes with "schematics and libre (fully open and auditable) firmware" but is costly. Richard Stallman uses an old Thinkpad [stallman.org] with an open-source BIOS; it may well have non-free firmware in ROM.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Thursday August 04 2016, @01:56AM
For OpenBSD, see /etc/firmware/atu-license in base. The word "blob" has no strict meaning, and OpenBSD people seem to use to mean main CPU binary, hence their claim is OK, while they still distribute non-free, sourceless software. Actually. if you look at Atmel license carefully, it says that you cannot distribute in source, so reverse-engineering is pointless.
What you say about device use is true, and we all make compromises and even RMS uses other people's spy-phones. What RMS doesn't do is he doesn't distribute non-free, sourceless privacy software to others, while telling them it is the state of the art.