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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
Now I need to know who the hell has installed Free Download Manager on Linux.
And via a website too. That's like pushing a car. One of the main strengths of Linux are open repositories, maintained by reputable sources and checked by thousands of reputable people. Packages are checksummed and therefore unable to be switched by malicious parties. Even the AUR is arguably a safer and more regulated source. And it's actually in there.
And via a website too
Everyone knows real admins do curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/something/or/other/install.sh | sudo bash
The same people that would have given that poor nigerian prince their bank account details
It's still my favorite download manager on Windows. It often downloads file significantly faster than the download manager built into browsers. Luckily I never installed it on Linux, since I have a habit of only installing from package managers.
Do you know of a good download manager for Linux?
How much faster are we talking?
I’ve honestly never looked at my downloads and though huh you should be quicker, well maybe in 90’s.
Right? I've not thought about download speeds since the 2000's.
FDM does some clever things to boost download speeds. It splits up a download into different chuncks, and somehow downloads them concurrently. It makes a big difference for large files (for example, Linux ISOs).
It only makes a difference if the server is capping the speed per connection. If it's not then it will not make a difference.
Im curious as to how it would achieve that?
It can’t split a file before it has the file. And all downloads are split up. They’re called packets.
Not saying it doesn’t do it, just wondering how.
It could make multiple requests to the server, asking each request to resume starting at a certain byte.
Interesting.
I feel I’ll save this rabbit hole for weekend and go and have a look at what they do.
The key thing to know is that a client can do an HTTP HEAD request to get just the Content-Length of the file, and then perform GET requests with the Range request header to fetch a specific chunk of a file.
This mechanism was introduced in HTTP 1.1 (byte-serving).
Huh.. that’s super interesting and thanks for sharing.
just grabbed a gig file - it would take about 8 minutes with a standard download in Firefox. Use a manager or axel and it will be 30 seconds. Then again speed isnt everything, its also nice to be able to have auto retry and completion.
JDownloader, XDM, FileCentipede (this one is the closest to IDM, although it uses closed source libraries), kGet, etc.
Gotta admit, it was me. I've only used a computer for short time.
I've got my first laptop 3 years ago, and that broke after just 2 months. And anyway, with AMD Athlon 64 it greatly struggled with a browser. So really I only started seriously using computer at the start of 2021, when I got another, usable laptop. And that's when I downloaded freedownloadmanager.deb. Thankfully, I didn't get that redirect, so it was a legitimate file.
Oh, I know someone who adds the word “free” to various search words like “free pdf reader” or “free flash player” (happened a very long time ago). He’s also the kind of person who I can imagine having a bunch of viruses and malware on his computer.
People not well versed in Linux.
You know, the non-techies, which the Linux community claims should know such things but obviously does not.
The article mentions how to check for infection:
If you have installed the Linux version of the Free Download Manager between 2020 and 2022, you should check and see if the malicious version was installed.
To do this, look for the following files dropped by the malware, and if found, delete them:
/etc/cron.d/collect /var/tmp/crond /var/tmp/bs
What is a free download manager and why would someone need one?
Back in the day when most stuff was on FTP and HTTP and your connection was crap and could drop at any time, you'd use a download manager to smooth things along. It could resume downloads when connection dropped, it could keep a download going for days on end and resume as needed, and it could abusing the bandwitdh limitations of the source site by using multiple parallel connections that pulled on different file chunks. In some ways it was very similar to how we use BT today.
It was also useful to keep a history of stuff you'd downloaded in case you needed it again, manage the associated files etc.
and it could abusing the bandwitdh limitations of the source site by using multiple parallel connections that pulled on different file chunks
Also for files which had multiple different mirror sites you could download chunks from multiple mirrors concurrently which would allow you to max out your bandwidth even if individual mirrors were limiting download speeds.
It's a download client that can pause/Resume downloads, as well as use multiple connections to download files
Back in the 2000s, browsers were really bad at downloading big things over slow connections since they couldn't resume, a brief disconnect could destroy hours of progress. But I don't think you need this anymore.
How is it possible that users noticed strange behaviors (new Cron jobs) and they didn't check the script launched by those jobs 😱
Linux popularity going up means the percentage of users who know what cron is goes down.
Is Disney finally making Tron sequel?
No it’s a disease that makes you poop a lot
No that's Crohn's, cron is a type of headwear for monarchs
No, thats a crown.
A cron is a type of super virus that wants to destroy the entire net. An end to all things.. Total crash. Only another virus superpowered by core energy can put a stop to it.
No, I’m Jamaican, and BTW I use Arch, Mon
They actually are, kind of. It's called Tron: Ares and it's been in production hell for some years, the most recent delay being due to the ongoing writer's strike. Filming is expected to start after the strike is over, but personally my enthusiasm for the movie died after they announced Jared Leto as one of the cast.
If they were complaining about cronjobs being created (like the post says), then they must have known what cron is.
Finally linux is getting popular enough to make viruses. Yay?. Insert gru meme here
Mmmh. You kinda deserve being infected if you do things like this. Every beginner tutorial specifically tells you not to download random stuff from the internet and 'sudo' install it. Every Wiki with helpful information has these boxes that tell you not to do it. I'm okay if you do it anyways. But don't blame anyone else for the consequences. And don't tell me you haven't been warned.
Also I wonder about the impact this had. It went unnoticed for 3 years. So I can't imagine it having affected many people. The text says it affected few people. And it didn't have any real impact.
But supply chain attacks are real. Don't get fooled. And don't install random stuff. Install the download manager from your package repository instead.
I kind of disagree. Applications often require root permissions to install themselves, since regular users can't access certain folders like /opt, etc.
Also, do you really think that people would actually read the source and then compile all their software themselves? Do you do the same?
Generally though I do agree, you're probably fine installing software from your distro's repos but even that's not bulletproof and also it's not like third-party repos are uncommon either.
malicious Debian package repository
*laughs in RPM*
This comment was presented by the fedora gang.
Right, but you could do the same with RPM. Not everyone is aware of this, but installing a package executes scripts with root access over your system.
I had to essentially read the same thing four times before there was any new information in this post. Not sure if that's a Jerboa thing or what, but probably could have been avoided.
Yeah I agree, sorry about that. I thought that the body-text field was mandatory to fill in, so I used the introductory paragraph from the article so as not to editorialize.