KeyofBlueS

FAQ on the xz-utils backdoor (CVE-2024-3094)

This is a living document. Everything in this document is made in good faith of being accurate, but like I just said; we don't yet know everything about what's going on.

Update: I've disabled comments as of 2025-01-26 to avoid everyone having notifications for something a year on if someone wants to suggest a correction. Folks are free to email to suggest corrections still, of course.

Background

Pairing Bluetooth Devices in Dual Boot with Linux Ubuntu and Windows 10/11

Introduction

This guide provides updated instructions for pairing Bluetooth devices (such as keyboards or mice) in a dual-boot environment with Linux Ubuntu and Windows 10/11, incorporating community feedback and suggestions.

Instructions

1. Pair in Linux First

Pair your Bluetooth device in Linux. This is crucial to ensure the LinkKey remains consistent.
Note: Do not re-pair the device in Linux after completing the pairing in Windows.

Before starting, make sure you have a backup, and make sure to have a linux live boot ready to rescue your system. It's easy to mess this up!

Use gdisk to convert the partition table to GPT.

gdisk /dev/sda
Create the "BIOS boot" partition that GRUB needs.

n to create a new partition. Needs to be about 1MB. You can probably squeeze this in from sectors 34-2047. Use L or l to look up the code for "BIOS boot" (ef02).
Write the new partition table.

w
Reload the partition table. > partprobe /dev/sda

To limit a CPU to a certain C-state, you can pass the processor.max_cstate=X option in the kernel line of /boot/grub/grub.conf.

Here we limit the system to only C-State 1:

    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-371.1.2.el5 ... processor.max_cstate=1

On some systems, the kernel can override the BIOS setting, and the parameter intel_idle.max_cstate=0 may be required to ensure sleep states are not entered:

	/* Ghostbusters texture converter
	Copyright 2010 Jonathan Wilson

	The Ghostbusters texture converter is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
	the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
	Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
	version. See the file COPYING for more details.
	*/
	#include <stdio.h>
	#include <string.h>

	import http.client
	import http.cookies
	import json
	import base64
	import hashlib
	from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import serialization
	from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import x25519
	from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.asymmetric import ec
	from cryptography.hazmat.primitives import hashes

	#!/bin/bash

	for i in $(ls *.smp)
	do
	tail -c +161 $i > "$i.ogg"
	done

	mkdir vorbis
	mv *.ogg vorbis

	The MIT License (MIT)

	Copyright (c) 2015 Felix Hummel

	Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
	this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
	the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
	use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies
	of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do
	so, subject to the following conditions: