Slopwatch: Turning Bugs Into FUD About "Linux", Getting Basic Facts Wrong

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 09, 2025

This installment of "Slopwatch" starts with this new example of LLM slop:

To be clear, this is not a real article (all the screenshots are of fake articles; we don't want to link to any).

Encryption did have an issue in some distros, but the above gets many facts wrong. No wonder, as it's fake and it just parrots things without any comprehension of them. Then there's this, which relates to [1]:

BOSS Linux is not the issue; the real issue is phishing, i.e. social engineering.

Then there is this:

They say "Linux Boot"; there is no such thing as they don't mean "lilo". Regarding Secure Boot, it is actually a hostile action against Linux. See [2] for real coverage, albeit from a notorious site. Notice the almost identical title in two slopfarms promoted by Google News:

Also in the sister slopfarm with the slop image, as usual:

Why would Google help slop? Because Google itself became a slop pusher.

We also saw a ton of LLM slop about [3]; Google News promoted some of it. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Phishing Attack : Deploying Malware on Indian Defense BOSS Linux

   CYFIRMA has identified a sophisticated cyber-espionage campaign orchestrated by APT36 (also known as Transparent Tribe), a threat actor based in Pakistan. This campaign specifically targets personnel within the Indian defense sector. In a notable shift from previous methodologies, APT36 has adapted its tactics to focus on Linux-based environments, with a particular emphasis on systems running BOSS Linux, a distribution extensively utilized by Indian government agencies.

2. Linux contains dangerous secure boot flaw: hackers can bypass it with a USB stick

   Physically present hackers can effectively bypass secure boot protections on modern Linux Systems and inject persistent malware. The quick fix is to modify the kernel and prevent the system from dropping into a debug shell during boot failures.

3. Key Linux distributions threatened by Sudo vulnerabilities

   Major Linux distributions could be compromised in attacks involving a pair of security flaws impacting versions of the Sudo command-line utility before 1.9.17p1, according to Security Affairs.