Update: About the BLOBs in Ventoy · Issue #3224
In #2795 there are some discuss about the BLOBs in Ventoy. For a long time, I devoted my limited spare time to adding new features and fixing bugs and didn't get around to considering this. It shou...
The author addresses the issue.
Perhaps I'm too skeptical and/or have trust issues, but isn't this too little too late? This issue had been ignored for so long, but -suddenly- within 24 hours of this very peculiar find^[Spoiler alert: Ventoy's sister software -called iVentoy- employs a trick that has been utilized for installing compromised kernel drivers.], Ventoys maintainer goes into full damage-control mode. Should we just accept that?
Sorry, at least for now, I simply don't buy it.
The guy is trying to address the issue and he is building this in his free time. Give him some credit at least, I am sure this is consuming a lot of his free time.
I personally find this Ventoy an amazing piece of software and he also seems to be willing to address the issue and be more transparent in the future which is also commendable.
The guy is trying to address the issue and he is building this in his free time. Give him some credit at least, I am sure this is consuming a lot of his free time.
Fam, you've chosen to trust them for reasons that are unclear to me. Honestly, I don't see anything (yet) that would clear their name. For all we know, they could have ties to some intelligence agency; which the infamous Jia Tan has (retroactively) been accused of as well.
I personally find this Ventoy an amazing piece of software
That's not the issue. I've also made plenty use of it in the past. But at what point do you start to second guess the intent behind the maintainer?
he also seems to be willing to address the issue and be more transparent in the future which is also commendable.
Again, arguably too little too late. They literally ghosted the issue for over a year. Then, within 24 hours of possible proof of malicious code, they appear and (perhaps) "pose the image" of putting in a gargantuan effort to resolve the issue. But, like, where were they for a year? Furthermore, the hints of justifications for their actions are simply not up too par.
Don't get me wrong. As I clearly hinted at it in my previous comment, if they pull through and provide/produce (bit-by-bit) reproducible builds of Ventoy^[Another spoiler-alert: They admitted that it would be hard. Which is fine, but could be interpreted as the first action for an eventual cop out. Only time will tell...], then I obviously have no qualms against them or their software. Why would I? But until then, I will steer clear.
What should have happened for you to be more concerned?
Should we just accept that?
Accept it or not, you choice. Nobody cares.
Is frankly annoying to see how much shit FOSS (or OSS) developer have to eat for every little misstep or for not employing their unpaid time to solve other people's issues (some of which are really laughable, btw).
A blatant lie, we see 600+ who do care in the link. github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/2795
Who only blocks paid malware?
I was trying to stir a discussion/conversation: How much can we tolerate from our beloved (F(L))OSS developers? Can they get away with anything as long as they return with some promise?f
Quoting directly from the author:
For a long time, I devoted my limited spare time to adding new features and fixing bugs and didn't get around to considering this.
I hate to break it to you, but it appears the author don't even have the bandwidth to worry about your trust.
Fedora installer heads stay winning
Would anyone that installed their current system using ventoy be at risk? Should I reinstall?
Would anyone that installed their current system using ventoy be at risk?
In absolute sense; we don't know for sure. It's possible to interpret this^[i.e. The lack of communication regarding this issue for more than a year, the recent finding in which fake root certificates are injected. And, of course, the maintainer finally addressing the issue.] in widely different ways:
Should I reinstall?
You should make up your own mind on that. The last time I installed an OS, I had become aware of this concern (i.e. the blobs). At that time, trusting it for what it was, would go against the threat model I've set for myself. And, consequently, if I had any (other) systems that were installed with it, then I would have proceeded to reinstall. But I'm not you, nor are you me... So, at the end of day, if you had something that resembled a threat model, then you would have used that to answer this question for yourself. As you don't seem to have one, making one just for this seems overkill. However, you could (re)assess how safe your system is in its current state and act accordingly. (Just to name a couple of examples:)
What is Ventoy?
Software to create bootable usb drives. It's handy, you just copy ISOs into the drive and pick which one to boot into instead of overwriting the drive with a single ISO.
Is there a good alternative to ventoy?
Of course I coukd flash the iso directly to the usb stick but thats not what I mean. I mean a trustworthy foss ventoy alternative.
You can use glim or build your own tool using grub. Edit: The article on Arch Wiki describes the manual process and also list more automated alternatives.
Can I boot windows with it?
Man I used to have a manually made multibootusb using grub config files and isos but moved to ventoy for convenience and now I can't find where I backup up de configuration....
Pinging @[email protected]
I don't know whether I put too much weight on this, but the lack of English proficiency in a developer rubs me the wrong way. I had already stopped using Ventoy and reinstalled the machines where I used it on, and this makes me glad I did.