openbsd

A Measurement Study on the Adoption of Pledges and Unveils in the OpenBSD Operating System https://lobste.rs/s/sglhvg #openbsd #security
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.03056

There was an article written recently about an rsync rewrite in Golang not being vulnerable to some vulnerabilities found in rsync.

The author went the extra mile and had some kind words to write about OpenBSD's OpenRsync as well:

https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2026-05-24-minimal-memory-safe-go-rsync-vulns/#openrsync

Ironically, I saw this not long after closing a Pull Request to submit an OpenRync port to MacPorts: https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/28096

Not that I don't still have an interest in such things, but it seems as if there are some other things going on (if I observed things correctly, it seems as if Apple maybe commissioned Klara Systems to port OpenRsync to macOS [e.g. https://github.com/KlaraSystems/openrsync]? Yet, it didn't seem as if they did so in a very collaborative spirit with the lead developer Kristaps Dzonsons?). Moreover, I didn't want to just leave that dangling when other MacPorts contributors were side-eyeing the PR as being left open for so long.

#OpenRsync #rsync #vulnerabilities #OpenSource #Security #Infosec #SecurityResearch #OpenBSD

A Final Return for OpenBSD Anti-Return-Oriented Programming Mitigations https://lobste.rs/s/xclcel #pdf #openbsd #security
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6869668

Meet #Starling, a lightweight #ActivityPub server for the #Fediverse, built with PHP and SQLite.

Run your own decentralized social platform on shared hosting or a tiny VPS WITHOUT Redis, PostgreSQL, or complex infrastructure.

What it makes so special to me? It looks awesome, comes with a great admin web interface and does not require a VPS instance where it can also be operated on a cheap shared hosting systems. By the given requirements, it also easily runs on a #RaspberryPI and all kind of systems, including #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD, #Illumos and more!

This all makes it perfect to everyone and even beginners to run their own instance. With relay support (e.g., fedi-relay.gyptazy.com) it even can consume and post content over non-directly connected instances in the #fediworld!

Kudos to the author of Starling: @df

More information:
GitHub project: https://github.com/dfaria-eu/Starling
My blog post: https://gyptazy.com/blog/starling-simple-fediverse-server/

#fedi #fediwall #opensource #decentralized #social #socialmedia #alternatives #mastodon

Interestingly, #FreeBSD comes with #nvi2 in base, while #OpenBSD and #NetBSD seem to be running #nvi 1:

FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p12~~~Version 2.2.2 (2025-10-08) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

OpenBSD 7.3(7.9 is still running the same version)~~~Version 1.79 (10/23/96) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

NetBSD 10.1~~~Version (1.81.6-2013-11-20nb4) The CSRG, University of California, Berkeley.

They all seem to have nvi2 available as packages, though, which #Debian, oddly, does not.

rld@Intrepid:~$ uname -srFreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE-p12rld@Intrepid:~$ pkg search nvi |grep '^nvi2'nvi2-2.2.2 Updated implementation of the ex/vi text editorrld@Intrepid:~$

#(searching openbsd online)rld@Intrepid:~$ searchall -o nvi |grep ^nvinvi-2.2.2 (list) with wide and files limited bynvi-2.2.2-iconv (list) with wide and files limited by

rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ uname -srNetBSD 10.1rldane@rosa.tilde.pink$ pkgin search nvi |grep ^nvi |grep -v nvidianvi-1.81.6nb13 Berkeley nvi with additional featuresnvi-m17n-1.79.20040608nb11 Clone of vi/ex, with multilingual patchnvi2-2.2.0 Multibyte fork of the nvi editor for BSDrldane@rosa.tilde.pink$

~ $ head -1 /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)"~ $ apt-cache search nvi |grep -E '^nvi2? 'nvi - 4.4BSD re-implementation of vi~ $

New methodology paper: The Calculator Discipline.

A four-class taxonomy of AI-assisted disclosure hallucinations, a pre-send filter that catches the mechanical ones, and two real withdrawals from my own OpenBSD work — including the one Theo de Raadt asked the right question about.

Honest case studies from the sender's end of a problem the field has only described from the receiving end.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20393083
Read: https://stuart-thomas.com/research/calculator-discipline/

#infosec #OpenBSD #vulndisclosure #methodology

Notes from unsuccessful swap to #NetBSD:
(1) System seems to be less integrated internally than #OpenBSD (it might not be fair comparison, but that's my only anchor point).
(2) Initial setup of Xorg needs some manual tuning (concerns non-US users), which is okay, not a problem to find answers.
(3) It boots up quickly, but shut downs longer than I would initially expect due to closing disk operations (to me this is not a problem).
(4) pkgsrc allows to pick over software, I tested Basilisk aka Snake web browser which I expected to work okay, but it was often choking due to JS. This browser is not accessible under Fish Linux.
(5) Thanks to pkgsrc I could test few alternatives to fetchmail, but I was not able to get them working. The best success I got with fetchmail because it was able to connect with server, but it was not able to hand e-mails over to postfix. I went over whole point regarding mails in guide, checked few articles, but nothing worked.
(6) I was missing lsblk.
(7) CTWM is very nice WM, copy system config file, do few tweaks and you are good to go.

As usual, YMMV. If you do not use archaic setups and do not care about 3D graphic acceleration, you will be content with NetBSD.

I must admit, I like the Green on Black #NetBSD console better than the White on Blue #OpenBSD one.

Decided I've nothing better to do than to wipe the nvme drive on my Dell Optiplex 3080 Tower and download / install the latest #OpenBSD snapshot img file to see if it now upgrades fine after the issues I had when it suddenly refused to upgrade past the 13th May snapshot but would downgrade without issue to any other date. Fingers crossed it works now as it's only an i5.

Hmm, still no mention of #tedu on marc.info, still no (last I heard) decision about slop in base via tmux.

Are the #OpenBSD guys ok? I don't mean this sarcastically.

UTF8 email with DMA: DragonFly Mail Agent https://lobste.rs/s/acsqgj #email #openbsd
https://www.vincentdelft.be/post/post_20260530

Sending #OpenBSD Puffy to test if the BSD Cafe images are being sent.

theory of the blade

#unix_surrealism #comic #openbsd #openblade #technomage #vintage

I’ve been getting motion sickness on my smaller monitors.

I have to be using at least 1080p monitors for some reason, I think. My laptop is nice, but it’s only 1600x900, and I plan on upgrading it someday. Ugh. I’m not playing games on them either, just regular computer use. Though FPS-style games like Fallout: New Vegas or whatever, I have to take frequent breaks from regardless of the screen size.

What can I do to deal with this? This sucks!

There’s another possibility of what it could be:

I turned off screen tearing on devices with GPUs that support it, but it’s not possible on my GhostBSD drive on my laptop, which uses X.org (as I refuse to use software made by people who think I shouldn’t exist, and I’m not looking to debate or argue this). My OpenBSD disk in my 1600x900 laptop has screen tearing disabled by default on modesetting, and I don’t have this issue. Maybe it’s a screen tearing problem.

I really like X.org and Xenocara; it supports what I need very well, but X.org hasn’t released a version with the tearfree option enabled by default for modesetting, but Xenocara backported that, which may explain my issue.

Any idea what I can do, #BSD and #OpenBSD friends?

(I don’t want to use Xlibre or Wayland; please don’t suggest those.)

Working around dragons with the Lemote Yeeloong laptop and OpenBSD https://lobste.rs/s/xsig5e #openbsd #retrocomputing
http://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2026/06/working-around-dragons-with-lemote.html

Remember, sending even 5 monies helps.
#OpenBSD
Direct donations
Official merch

#NetBSD
Direct donations
Merch

#somafm
Direct donations
Merch

#unix_surrealism
Direct donations
Merch

looking for wireless keyboard with trackpad for #openbsd

similar to this setup, but with a trackpad not a mouse...

any ideas?

cc @joel

OpenBSD ports mailing list is talking about importing
claude and anthropic and other crap.
I'm dissapointed at the lack of pushback.

I like OpenBSD but not that much.

#uncool #openbsd

https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-ports&m=178286673648679&w=2

I guess it's just ports so it's all optional, but i still don't have to like it.

Also these are not "development" tools.

Who does not like backups? For sure everyone who run dd against root or home partition love them. You might be missing Pear's Time Machine or GNU/systemd's Time Shift. There is another - look here: https://xosc.org/timemachine.html. There you will find instruction how to make Time Machine-like encrypted backups installing only rsnapshot from ports. If you are smart - I am sure you are - you can easily modify the process to your needs. Have fun!

#OpenBSD

Strange that neither #FreeBSD nor #OpenBSD have jbig2 in their packages. I wasn't able to get it to compile on FreeBSD, either. :/

#jbig2 #ports #packages

https://github.com/outpaddling/desktop-installer/issues/30#issuecomment-4835472901

i submitted desktop-installer and its depend to the #OpenBSD ports@ mailing list. Please test on your machine to improve chances of import. Thanks!

For $REASONS, I took my (old) #Lenovo Ideapad S10 out of the box and installed #OpenBSD 7.9/i386 on it. Turns out... it installs and runs. But the only graphical Web browser I could use is Dillo; which can display DuckDuckGo but not Phanpy or my Bank User Portal. So I don't expect to go very far there. Also, even with hw.perfpolicy set to auto, the fan never stops blowing and making some annoying noise (although CPU is 40 degC).

Maybe I'll try some i386 Linux distro there to see what happens. Maybe it'll go back to its box until the Zombie Apocalypse and the need for 2W TDP CPU happen. Or until I need a 1024x600 10" tmux terminal... I could actually take it on the road where the P14 is too big and the iPhone is a bit too small...

And BTW, in case whatever, the dmesg is here https://dmesgd.nycbug.org/dmesgd?do=view&id=9039 :)

PS: While writing this post, the fan finally stopped blowing. Not sure why as temperature is still 40 degC. Anyway.

I wonder if I could modify OpenBSD's umount code to add
an -e option that would eject the device that was mounted
after unmounting it?

#openbsd #umount #eject

I am looking for small computo, requirements are:

small screen, max 10 inch
runs #OpenBSD or #NetBSD
has a keyboard
can connect to Internet
it works
price is reasonable

I am aware of:

MNT Reform Pocket (if I will be super rich one day, then I will take entire stock)
HP Jornada (especially 720, but availability is not great)
Zaurus machines (availability is almost zero and might not fill condition "it works")

If you have any respond for me, the prize is guaranteed!

Trojaned OpenSSH (in 2002) https://lobste.rs/s/ti42hu #openbsd #security
http://miod.online.fr/software/openbsd/stories/trojan.html