this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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On the 16th of July, at around 8pm UTC+2, a malicious AUR package was uploaded to the AUR. Two other malicious packages were uploaded by the same user a few hours later. These packages were installing a script coming from the same GitHub repository that was identified as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).

The affected malicious packages are:

  • librewolf-fix-bin
  • firefox-patch-bin
  • zen-browser-patched-bin

The Arch Linux team addressed the issue as soon as they became aware of the situation. As of today, 18th of July, at around 6pm UTC+2, the offending packages have been deleted from the AUR.

We strongly encourage users that may have installed one of these packages to remove them from their system and to take the necessary measures in order to ensure they were not compromised.

Follow up

There are more packages with this malware found.

  • minecraft-cracked
  • ttf-ms-fonts-all
  • vesktop-bin-patched
  • ttf-all-ms-fonts

What to do

If you installed any of these packages, check your running processes for one named systemd-initd (this is the RAT).

The suspicious packages have a patch from this now-inaccessible Codeberg repo: https://codeberg.org/arch_lover3/browser-patch

The Arch maintainers have been informed of all this already and are investigating.

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[–] mark@social.cool110.xyz 121 points 2 days ago (4 children)

@DirkMcCallahan @Tundra The AUR isn't a trusted source, but most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that.

[–] copygirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 110 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that

The "Arch cult's" holy book, the ArchWiki, states the following pretty clearly:

Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.

Mention of one's use of the AUR for their needs doesn't need to come with a disclaimer.
People who don't read or don't use their brain are going to keep not doing so, regardless.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Arch is not responsible for idiots.

[–] irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

Arch is not recommended for idiots either. If you want cutting edge, you accept the risks. Works that way with all tech.

[–] FuckBigTech347@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 day ago

I feel like the people who don't look at PKGBUILDs and install hooks and just hit Y on everything are the same people who spam "Next" and "Accept" on Windows Installers from random websites.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Half the posts on the Internet are people replying to requests for help with the message "read the wiki, the aur isn't a trusted source, dummy"

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works -3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Why do we have the AUR anyway?

[–] helix@feddit.org 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because it's convenient and a good way to start to write PKGBUILDs quickly without becoming a proper package maintainer.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Isn’t that like how alpinelinux’s community repository works too?

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

It's meant to be a convenience for people who know what they're doing.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

It's super useful as long as you understand that it is just a big bucket of scripts that just anybody can push

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

You can't even install from AUR using pacman directly. You either need to makepkg them manually, or use an extra AUR compatible package manager like yay. It's made as clear as possible to arch users that the AUR is not vetted in any way, it's just for convenience.