- Oct 23, 2012
- 12,527
Tails, a Live operating system that is built with the sole purpose of keeping users safe and anonymous while going online, has been updated to version 1.1.2.
Tails is a secure Linux distribution that's been around for many years. Its developers are still unknown, which is rather unusual for such a large project. This simple precaution has kept the project going, although there are probably many parties out there that would love to see it disappear.
The system rose to fame when whistleblower Edward Snowden said that he had used it in order to keep his information trafficking activities safe from the authorities. It's unclear just how much Tails helped him, but the system became much sought after.
A new Tails release is now available for download
Usually, the Tails releases are rather large, but this time it's a rather small upgrade. It was prompted by a problem found in the NSS library and it was serious enough that it prompted a fast release.
"We prepared this release mainly to fix a serious flaw in the Network Security Services (NSS) library used by Firefox and other products allows attackers to create forged RSA certificates."
"Before this release, users on a compromised network could be directed to sites using a fraudulent certificate and mistake them for legitimate sites. This could deceive them into revealing personal information such as usernames and passwords. It may also deceive users into downloading malware if they believe it's coming from a trusted site," note the anonymous devs on the official website.
Tails 1.1.2 also comes with an updated Tor version (based on Firefox 24.8.0 ESR+tails3~bpo70+1), a new Linux kernel has been added, 3.16-1, and the GnuPG, APT, DBus, and Bash packages have been updated.
It's easy to notice from the posted changes that the developers have also taken into account the problems that have been identified with Bash and fixed them as well.
Still, this is not a perfect software and there are quite a few problems that haven't been resolved yet. For example, a number of SanDisk Cruzer USB devices don't work with the distribution, the ASUS VivoBook X202E laptop has problems with the UEFI Bios, Dell Inspiron 8100 has problems displaying the correct menus, and many more devices will not even run the OS.
You can download the latest Tails 1.1.2 release from Softpedia and give it a spin. This is a Live CD and it's built in such a way that it doesn't leave any traces on the systems running it.
Tails is a secure Linux distribution that's been around for many years. Its developers are still unknown, which is rather unusual for such a large project. This simple precaution has kept the project going, although there are probably many parties out there that would love to see it disappear.
The system rose to fame when whistleblower Edward Snowden said that he had used it in order to keep his information trafficking activities safe from the authorities. It's unclear just how much Tails helped him, but the system became much sought after.
A new Tails release is now available for download
Usually, the Tails releases are rather large, but this time it's a rather small upgrade. It was prompted by a problem found in the NSS library and it was serious enough that it prompted a fast release.
"We prepared this release mainly to fix a serious flaw in the Network Security Services (NSS) library used by Firefox and other products allows attackers to create forged RSA certificates."
"Before this release, users on a compromised network could be directed to sites using a fraudulent certificate and mistake them for legitimate sites. This could deceive them into revealing personal information such as usernames and passwords. It may also deceive users into downloading malware if they believe it's coming from a trusted site," note the anonymous devs on the official website.
Tails 1.1.2 also comes with an updated Tor version (based on Firefox 24.8.0 ESR+tails3~bpo70+1), a new Linux kernel has been added, 3.16-1, and the GnuPG, APT, DBus, and Bash packages have been updated.
It's easy to notice from the posted changes that the developers have also taken into account the problems that have been identified with Bash and fixed them as well.
Still, this is not a perfect software and there are quite a few problems that haven't been resolved yet. For example, a number of SanDisk Cruzer USB devices don't work with the distribution, the ASUS VivoBook X202E laptop has problems with the UEFI Bios, Dell Inspiron 8100 has problems displaying the correct menus, and many more devices will not even run the OS.
You can download the latest Tails 1.1.2 release from Softpedia and give it a spin. This is a Live CD and it's built in such a way that it doesn't leave any traces on the systems running it.
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