Merge branch 'master' into arraybolt3/emerg-shutdown

README.md

@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ and simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is disabled. See the
 Note, to achieve complete protection for known CPU vulnerabilities, the latest
 security microcode (BIOS/UEFI) updates must be installed on the system. Furthermore,
 if using Secure Boot, the Secure Boot Forbidden Signature Database (DBX) must be kept
-up to date through [UEFI Revocation List](https://uefi.org/revocationlistfile) updates.
+up to date through [UEFI Revocation List](https://github.com/microsoft/secureboot_objects) updates.
 
 CPU mitigations:
 
@@ -226,8 +226,8 @@ Kernel space:
 - Optional - Disable support for all x86 processes and syscalls (when using Linux kernel >= 6.7)
   to reduce attack surface.
 
-- Disable EFI persistent storage feature, preventing the kernel from writing crash logs and
+- Disable the EFI persistent storage feature which prevents the kernel from writing crash logs
-  other persistent data to the EFI variable store.
+  and other persistent data to either the UEFI variable storage or ACPI ERST backends.
 
 Direct memory access:
 

changelog.upstream

@@ -1,3 +1,456 @@
+commit b06fb5428051518390439ce95c9d6894e6338951
+Merge: 115b6f6 468cf40
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed Jul 2 13:47:12 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge remote-tracking branch 'github-kicksecure/master'
+
+commit 468cf40e2a216625d02066b609b0991e37c50ebc
+Merge: 865a052 bb208fb
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed Jul 2 13:45:28 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge pull request #306 from raja-grewal/erst
+    
+    Set `erst_disable`
+
+commit 865a052bf47f28c0084b2bbd51e3c606df9eda96
+Merge: 115b6f6 e3c4519
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed Jul 2 13:44:17 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge pull request #309 from RebornRider/patch-1
+    
+    remove  TemporaryTimeout=0 in Bluetooth config
+
+commit bb208fb134fe25fc3539494f331072a851369064
+Merge: 4314b1e 115b6f6
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Wed Jul 2 11:35:50 2025 +1000
+
+    Merge branch 'Kicksecure:master' into erst
+
+commit 4314b1e85bd5495832b4398bdbd358c41703dcc9
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Tue Jul 1 13:36:39 2025 +1000
+
+    Add comment
+
+commit e3c451917931aa4e63056fb03470c203694d399f
+Author: Kevin Agwaze <7119346+RebornRider@users.noreply.github.com>
+Date:   Mon Jun 16 10:35:16 2025 +0100
+
+    remove misleading TemporaryTimeout=0 in Bluetooth config
+
+commit 115b6f6aa2a4d00ad5690c2c0889e142540c01ca
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sat Jun 14 11:51:44 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 4639d1aab572bb4ad751bd1da5b936b9d73d3264
+Merge: 5159de6 109c013
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Fri Jun 13 15:09:52 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge remote-tracking branch 'ArrayBolt3/arraybolt3/approx'
+
+commit 109c0134677d991c449aa009773cb22babeee8db
+Author: Aaron Rainbolt <arraybolt3@ubuntu.com>
+Date:   Thu Jun 12 01:08:34 2025 -0500
+
+    Add comment related to approx package caching proxy
+
+commit 72613203b9692d1098b13ff98119499a5a30a6da
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Fri Jun 6 13:07:52 2025 +0000
+
+    Add reference
+
+commit dd0b55cc45f9ccd64d0075ba37ab6a4723d94a02
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Tue Jun 3 12:32:17 2025 +1000
+
+    Add reference
+
+commit 5159de63438e8c1274658e7175a80fb693d6554a
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 28 13:48:11 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 3e102df76583a14b5efc18238aefbf539ab0d8a1
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 28 08:37:03 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit d5edc243ac2db861f1600d3906a02494eaf9a824
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 28 12:12:00 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit eda1d0aef640af1ea73c72d6caa876733de4e5a0
+Merge: e966774 5a10ad0
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 28 07:22:16 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge remote-tracking branch 'github-kicksecure/master'
+
+commit 5a10ad031d67acc8fa4c16f9e2db191bde559caa
+Merge: e966774 3559bc8
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 28 07:21:31 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge pull request #307 from maybebyte/ssh-agent-to-allowlist
+    
+    fix(permission-hardener): ssh-agent gets 2755 perms
+
+commit 3559bc86b7aed8122ff7996ce0ab4a65bdaf05c0
+Author: Ashlen <dev@anthes.is>
+Date:   Tue May 27 15:32:41 2025 -0600
+
+    fix(permission-hardener): ssh-agent gets 2755 perms
+    
+    Change from exactwhitelist to matchwhitelist. Discussion revealed that
+    there's a good reason to leave setgid in here, which is essentially
+    defense-in-depth (sometimes users may want to revert Kicksecure's
+    default of kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=2, e.g. to debug a program, and
+    Kicksecure should not be less secure than vanilla Debian in that
+    situation).
+
+commit c59b2e4bc53cad4c9cc90ddd5abaca0705ccff90
+Merge: 017ee29 e966774
+Author: maybebyte <99762926+maybebyte@users.noreply.github.com>
+Date:   Tue May 27 20:33:07 2025 +0000
+
+    Merge branch 'Kicksecure:master' into ssh-agent-to-allowlist
+
+commit e96677486201ebddc145af7962ad5e89f6fa253b
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Tue May 27 19:41:25 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 017ee29eb39d84edc89f128a633a619cad852241
+Merge: 7a079c3 abb2207
+Author: maybebyte <99762926+maybebyte@users.noreply.github.com>
+Date:   Tue May 27 18:25:47 2025 +0000
+
+    Merge branch 'Kicksecure:master' into ssh-agent-to-allowlist
+
+commit 5195977be474e29a29b6392306e909e9f2d05ada
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Tue May 27 11:57:21 2025 -0400
+
+    protect against grep pipefail
+
+commit abb2207313810966dad381c3a9f637c445a5834d
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Tue May 27 15:51:50 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 45016146f7c77d383f2254d19dc66ba9b883b8f2
+Merge: ace45d7 395169f
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Tue May 27 11:03:23 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge remote-tracking branch 'github-kicksecure/master'
+
+commit 395169fbce1854bfed727d1784f4e5c0d8e7c6ff
+Merge: ace45d7 e14b81b
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Tue May 27 10:58:50 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge pull request #308 from maybebyte/permission-hardener-speedboost
+    
+    perf(permission-hardener): optimize string match
+
+commit 1c353032046f556bb11c32506019310c9f6d47c0
+Merge: 35fa32e ace45d7
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Fri May 23 20:20:19 2025 +1000
+
+    Merge branch 'Kicksecure:master' into erst
+
+commit ace45d7c95ed6b83c1897f76da5af4a0c97cab10
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 22:06:02 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 142ea2118989faddafa17db48efed379c4ac3f45
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:42:16 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit a969fa350e28ca296966509821a7c62b68f09a5a
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:40:27 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit f023651c984c52a997bc241f99f118255cf60809
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:35:37 2025 -0400
+
+    nounset
+
+commit f086787464191a07e028dd92649c48b145023858
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:35:23 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit d7643954d184846c8b7fb5eda7200779126274eb
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:33:50 2025 -0400
+
+    minor
+
+commit aa905fc8875c5c56351f10f4e40e6d2a7dd6d918
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:32:16 2025 -0400
+
+    further validation of output of `faillock`
+
+commit 92d3a36a0f43615db622c6b0daa7064b8e8ebbbb
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:29:01 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit 2c1abb23e03cfe449347ba692d35f5ba1f33cff4
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:26:46 2025 -0400
+
+    output
+
+commit 0801b96ae74256f36dcf8757d0ba8abc66ea0b9b
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:25:49 2025 -0400
+
+    output
+
+commit ef8515ba82996b137c386eeb91e6f853d58a515f
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:23:45 2025 -0400
+
+    improve error handling
+
+commit 784867e24b4d6f2899fa9b215ec9e3c4e2fb9d84
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 12:21:45 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit 0eea681ce893a259563f8e9d5a2ec9722fbc635d
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 15:52:16 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit e1bae1c68aabc424924b6386fe4980d657dc2cdf
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 11:50:59 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit bd01a683054b1f7d5a5f6cc4848da73b1b1ef5ff
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 13:58:18 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 14cf205579ff65fa765d7574e5d0e301a30a1904
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 08:36:16 2025 -0400
+
+    fix
+
+commit ff6bc5d5b6097bcdddd8e66c2541106c2cbabbaf
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 11:23:39 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 353b6e83c55d52b47a2a35063406324cec7237c4
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 07:20:13 2025 -0400
+
+    test that `wc` is functional
+    
+    https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc/pull/305#issuecomment-2892378246
+
+commit 5930e270521e0e5d6a0a3877c813accbf5253051
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 07:05:25 2025 -0400
+
+    pam-info: improve error handling
+    
+    https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc/pull/305#issuecomment-2892378246
+
+commit 5c981e0891ef009c5c2355f5f6383aca22c45638
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Wed May 21 06:55:09 2025 -0400
+
+    pam-info: fix, consistently write errors and warnings to stderr
+
+commit e14b81b15e479afbc4820a2b9bb60f3cf65bfb12
+Author: Ashlen <dev@anthes.is>
+Date:   Tue May 20 21:34:03 2025 -0600
+
+    perf(permission-hardener): optimize string match
+    
+    Replace subprocess grep calls with bash substring matching in
+    check_nosuid_whitelist function. This eliminates ~10k unneeded
+    subprocess spawns that were causing significant performance
+    degradation.
+    
+    In testing, it improves overall script execution speed by an
+    order of magnitude:
+    
+    Before patch:
+    $ sudo hyperfine -- './permission-hardener enable'
+    Benchmark 1: ./permission-hardener enable
+      Time (mean ± σ):     11.906 s ±  0.974 s    [User: 3.639 s, System: 8.728 s]
+      Range (min … max):   10.430 s … 14.090 s    10 runs
+    
+    After patch:
+    $ sudo hyperfine -- './permission-hardener enable'
+    Benchmark 1: ./permission-hardener enable
+      Time (mean ± σ):     802.8 ms ± 178.5 ms    [User: 283.0 ms, System: 471.9 ms]
+      Range (min … max):   639.4 ms … 1092.3 ms    10 runs
+
+commit 7a079c3de8bd8b4e026a1bd1b932a04610a1e386
+Author: Ashlen <dev@anthes.is>
+Date:   Tue May 20 18:41:48 2025 -0600
+
+    fix(permission-hardener): add exactwhitelist here
+    
+    Without this, the permissions for ssh-agent won't be changed properly.
+
+commit 94dc9da4ab8fb93760dbb3b325bdeaa155e492cb
+Author: Ashlen <dev@anthes.is>
+Date:   Tue May 20 17:07:51 2025 -0600
+
+    fix(permission-hardener): ssh-agent gets 755 perms
+    
+    Replace the commented-out matchwhitelist entry for ssh-agent with an
+    explicit permission entry (755) for /usr/bin/ssh-agent.
+    
+    When ssh-agent's matchwhitelist entry was commented out in commit
+    7a5f8b87af, permission-hardener began resetting it to restrictive
+    defaults (744), preventing non-root users from executing ssh-agent. This
+    broke split SSH functionality in Qubes OS for me because I was using
+    Kicksecure in the vault qube, and ssh-agent runs under a non-root user in
+    that configuration (see https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/split-ssh/19060).
+    
+    As noted in the comment, Debian installs with 2755 permissions as a way
+    to mitigate ptrace attacks, but this rationale doesn't apply due to
+    kernel.yama.ptrace_scope=2 being set in Kicksecure.
+
+commit 19d7e1af5d7acf6eb3a20fe3ebf5f14cef041f92
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Tue May 20 11:40:27 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
+commit 405880e63b92319626332d083a6c5ad5101dbf77
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:44:42 2025 -0400
+
+    handle case of non-existence of /proc/cmdline
+
+commit 88235cc97b8b54f3fe78d6ad76f64326e8b53f3e
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:44:04 2025 -0400
+
+    refactoring
+
+commit 601ea77b005d18b57a85e0701f3981edd61b7881
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:42:39 2025 -0400
+
+    end-of-options
+
+commit d8feca12768441b0499ead7cc9f9bce4e89b1edf
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:41:41 2025 -0400
+
+    printf
+
+commit 7f2ba0980d17360fc014c6a412fc4ee57e1032fd
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:40:50 2025 -0400
+
+    refactoring
+
+commit 4d1f8c44d28895587abce586ed5b2fe354544f6a
+Merge: 341dce3 e478750
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:36:08 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge remote-tracking branch 'github-kicksecure/master'
+
+commit e478750814798f3d9aa60354b6cecbb84769ed53
+Merge: 341dce3 91a76db
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Sun May 18 06:35:23 2025 -0400
+
+    Merge pull request #305 from DMHalford/pam-info-failed_login_counter-fix
+    
+    Prevent erroneous "Login blocked after [negative number] attempts" errors
+
+commit 35fa32e4ed6333f3ab87d09828f13155aa1e7a72
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Sat May 17 15:06:49 2025 +1000
+
+    Reword
+
+commit a1bde21ccb475fc21a084559dbe766f6315d9287
+Author: raja-grewal <rg_public@proton.me>
+Date:   Sat May 17 04:41:06 2025 +0000
+
+    Set `erst_disable`
+
+commit 91a76db66bb496ba4650ada38df31636297738cf
+Author: DMHalford <161769419+DMHalford@users.noreply.github.com>
+Date:   Thu May 15 15:42:50 2025 -0400
+
+    Prevent erroneous "Login blocked after [negative number] attempts" errors
+    
+    For root, faillock appears to always* return an empty string (i.e. no table headers are present), yielding a zero-initialized pam_faillock_output_count and thus resulting in the calculation of a negative failed_login_counter value.
+    
+    This can cause erroneous errors of the form "ERROR: Login blocked after [negative number] attempts" during sudo-ing and screen unlocking.
+    
+    This commit modifies the initialization of failed_login_counter such that it cannot be negative and prevents the display of these incorrect warnings.
+    
+    * Only rudimentary local tests were conducted
+
+commit 6c3be9ced071e73e78451c82e8def9c5a5b02598
+Author: DMHalford <161769419+DMHalford@users.noreply.github.com>
+Date:   Thu May 15 15:06:10 2025 -0400
+
+    Prevent erroneous "Login blocked after [negative number] attempts" errors
+    
+    For root, faillock appears to always* return an empty string (i.e. no table headers are present), yielding a zero-initialized pam_faillock_output_count and thus resulting in the calculation of a negative failed_login_counter value.
+    
+    This can cause erroneous errors of the form "ERROR: Login blocked after [negative number] attempts" during sudo-ing and screen unlocking.
+    
+    This commit modifies the initialization of failed_login_counter such that it cannot be negative and prevents the display of these incorrect warnings.
+    
+    * Only rudimentary tests were conducted
+
+commit 341dce33fb806ab03822470e6af91604662c22dd
+Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
+Date:   Fri Apr 25 09:54:23 2025 +0000
+
+    bumped changelog version
+
 commit 06e1e44b0039807baa862102b12fc5e199c3ccb3
 Author: Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
 Date:   Fri Apr 25 05:51:21 2025 -0400

debian/changelog

@@ -1,3 +1,69 @@
+security-misc (3:46.3-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 02 Jul 2025 20:52:17 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:46.2-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Sat, 14 Jun 2025 11:51:44 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:46.1-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 28 May 2025 13:48:11 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:46.0-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 28 May 2025 12:12:00 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.9-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Tue, 27 May 2025 19:41:25 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.8-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Tue, 27 May 2025 15:51:50 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.7-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 21 May 2025 22:06:01 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.6-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 21 May 2025 15:52:16 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.5-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 21 May 2025 13:58:18 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.4-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Wed, 21 May 2025 11:23:39 +0000
+
+security-misc (3:45.3-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream version (local package).
+
+ -- Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>  Tue, 20 May 2025 11:40:27 +0000
+
 security-misc (3:45.2-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * New upstream version (local package).

etc/bluetooth/30_security-misc.conf

@@ -16,11 +16,6 @@ DiscoverableTimeout = 30
 # Default=0 (unlimited)
 MaxControllers=1
 
-# How long to keep temporary devices around
-# The value is in seconds. Default is 30.
-# 0 = disable timer, i.e. never keep temporary devices
-TemporaryTimeout = 0
-
 [Policy]
 # AutoEnable defines option to enable all controllers when they are found.
 # This includes adapters present on start as well as adapters that are plugged

etc/default/grub.d/40_cpu_mitigations.cfg

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
 ## The UEFI Revocation List contains signatures of now revoked firmware and software used in booting systems.
 ## If using compatible hardware, the database can be updated directly in user space using fwupd.
 ## Note that incorrectly performing DBX updates can potentially lead to serious functionality issues.
+## https://github.com/microsoft/secureboot_objects
 ## https://uefi.org/revocationlistfile
 ## https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd
 

etc/default/grub.d/40_kernel_hardening.cfg

@@ -224,7 +224,9 @@ GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX vdso32=0"
 #GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX ia32_emulation=0"
 
 ## Disable EFI persistent storage feature.
-## Prevents the kernel from writing crash logs and other persistent data to the EFI variable store.
+## Disable Error Record Serialization Table (ERST) support as a form of defense-in-depth.
+## Prevents the kernel from writing crash logs and other persistent data to the storage backend.
+## Both the UEFI variable storage and ACPI ERST backends are deactivated.
 ##
 ## https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/post/pstore-linux-kernel-persistent-storage-file-system
 ## https://www.ais.com/understanding-pstore-linux-kernel-persistent-storage-file-system/
@@ -234,6 +236,7 @@ GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX vdso32=0"
 ## https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc/issues/299
 ##
 GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX efi_pstore.pstore_disable=1"
+GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX erst_disable"
 
 ## 2. Direct Memory Access:
 ##

etc/profile.d/30_security-misc.sh

@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 ## See the file COPYING for copying conditions.
 
 if [ -z "$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS" ]; then
-   XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/xdg
+   XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="/etc/xdg"
 fi
-if ! echo "$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS" | grep --quiet /usr/share/security-misc/ ; then
+if ! printf '%s\n' "$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS" | grep -- "/usr/share/security-misc/" >/dev/null 2>/dev/null ; then
-   export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/usr/share/security-misc/:$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
+   export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="/usr/share/security-misc/:$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS"
 fi

usr/bin/permission-hardener

@@ -256,8 +256,7 @@ check_nosuid_whitelist() {
   [[ " ${policy_exact_white_list[*]} " =~ " ${target_file} " ]] && return 1
 
   for match_white_list_entry in "${policy_match_white_list[@]:-}"; do
-    if safe_echo "${target_file}" \
+    if [[ "${target_file}" == *"${match_white_list_entry}"* ]]; then
-      | grep --quiet --fixed-strings -- "${match_white_list_entry}"; then
       return 1
     fi
   done
@@ -627,7 +626,7 @@ commit_policy() {
     else
       if ! capsh --print \
         | grep --fixed-strings -- "Bounding set" \
-        | grep --quiet -- "${policy_capability_item}"; then
+        | grep -- "${policy_capability_item}" >/dev/null; then
         log error \
           "Capability from config does not exist: '${policy_capability_item}'" \
           >&2

usr/bin/remount-secure

@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ remount_secure() {
 
    $output_command "INFO: '$mount_folder' old_mount_options: '$old_mount_options'"
 
-   if echo "$old_mount_options" | grep --quiet "$intended_mount_options" ; then
+   if printf '%s\n' "$old_mount_options" | grep "$intended_mount_options" >/dev/null 2>/dev/null ; then
       $output_command "INFO: '$mount_folder' has already intended mount options. ('$intended_mount_options')"
       return 0
    fi

usr/lib/permission-hardener.d/25_default_whitelist_ssh.conf

@@ -5,11 +5,17 @@
 ## "/usr/local/etc/permission-hardener.d/20_user.conf" for your custom
 ## configuration. When security-misc is updated, this file may be overwritten.
 
+## Used for SSH client key management
+## https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/openssh-client/ssh-agent.1.en.html
+## Debian installs ssh-agent with setgid permissions (2755) and with
+## _ssh as the group to help mitigate ptrace attacks that could extract
+## private keys from the agent's memory.
+ssh-agent matchwhitelist
+
 ## Used only for SSH host-based authentication
 ## https://linux.die.net/man/8/ssh-keysign
 ## Needed to allow access to the machine's host key for use in the
 ## authentication process. This is a non-default method of authenticating to
 ## SSH, and is likely rarely used, thus this should be safe to disable.
-#ssh-agent matchwhitelist
 #ssh-keysign matchwhitelist
 #/usr/lib/openssh matchwhitelist

usr/lib/sysctl.d/990-security-misc.conf

@@ -360,6 +360,8 @@ kernel.core_pattern=|/bin/false
 ## Prevent setuid processes or otherwise protected/tainted binaries from creating core dumps.
 ## Any process which has changed privilege levels or is execute-only will not be dumped.
 ##
+## https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2025/05/29/qualys-tru-discovers-two-local-information-disclosure-vulnerabilities-in-apport-and-systemd-coredump-cve-2025-5054-and-cve-2025-4598
+##
 ## KSPP=yes
 ## KSPP sets the sysctl.
 ##
@@ -475,6 +477,9 @@ net.ipv4.conf.*.arp_filter=1
 ## https://github.com/mullvad/mullvadvpn-app/pull/7141
 ## https://www.x41-dsec.de/static/reports/X41-Mullvad-Audit-Public-Report-2024-12-10.pdf
 ##
+## Can lead to breakages with certain VM configurations that may be resolved by lowering protection to `arp_ignore=1`.
+## https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc/pull/290
+##
 net.ipv4.conf.*.arp_ignore=2
 
 ## Drop gratuitous ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) packets.

usr/libexec/security-misc/apt-get-update-sanity-test

@@ -7,5 +7,15 @@ set -x
 set -e
 set -o pipefail
 
+if ! printf '%s\n' "" | wc -l >/dev/null ; then
+  printf '%s\n' "\
+$0: ERROR: command 'wc' test failed! Do not ignore this!
+
+'wc' can core dump. Example:
+zsh: illegal hardware instruction (core dumped) wc -l
+https://github.com/rspamd/rspamd/issues/5137" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 wc -L "/var/lib/apt/lists/"*InRelease
 wc -L "/var/lib/apt/lists/"*InRelease | awk '$1 > 1024 {print; exit 1}'

usr/libexec/security-misc/pam-info

@@ -19,11 +19,41 @@ fi
 
 true "$0: START PHASE 2"
 
+set -o errexit
+set -o errtrace
 set -o pipefail
+set -o nounset
+
+error_handler() {
+   exit_code="$?"
+   printf '%s\n' "\
+$0: ERROR: Unexpected error.
+BASH_COMMAND: '$BASH_COMMAND'
+exit_code: '$exit_code'
+ERROR: Please report this bug." >&2
+   exit 1
+}
+
+trap error_handler ERR
+
+if ! printf '%s\n' "" | wc -l >/dev/null ; then
+  printf '%s\n' "\
+$0: ERROR: command 'wc' test failed! Do not ignore this!
+
+'wc' can core dump. Example:
+zsh: illegal hardware instruction (core dumped) wc -l
+https://github.com/rspamd/rspamd/issues/5137" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+command -v str_replace &>/dev/null
 
 ## Named constants.
 pam_faillock_state_dir="/var/lib/security-misc/faillock"
 
+[[ -v PAM_USER ]] || PAM_USER=""
+[[ -v SUDO_USER ]] || SUDO_USER=""
+
 ## Debugging.
 who_ami="$(whoami)"
 true "$0: who_ami: $who_ami"
@@ -35,18 +65,19 @@ if [ "$PAM_USER" = "" ]; then
    exit 0
 fi
 
-grep_result="$(grep -- "accessfile=/etc/security/access-security-misc.conf" /etc/pam.d/common-account 2>/dev/null)"
+grep_result="$(grep -- "accessfile=/etc/security/access-security-misc.conf" /etc/pam.d/common-account 2>/dev/null)" || true
 
 ## Check if grep matched something.
 if [ ! "$grep_result" = "" ]; then
    ## Yes, grep matched.
 
    ## Check if not out commented.
-   if ! echo "$grep_result" | grep --quiet -- "#" ; then
+   if ! printf '%s\n' "$grep_result" | grep --quiet -- "#" ; then
       ## Not out commented indeed.
 
       ## https://forums.whonix.org/t/etc-security-hardening-console-lockdown/8592
 
+      console_allowed=""
       if id --name --groups --zero -- "$PAM_USER" | grep --quiet --null-data --line-regexp --fixed-strings -- "console"; then
          console_allowed=true
       fi
@@ -55,7 +86,7 @@ if [ ! "$grep_result" = "" ]; then
       fi
 
       if [ ! "$console_allowed" = "true" ]; then
-         echo "\
+         printf '%s\n' "\
 $0: ERROR: PAM_USER: '$PAM_USER' is not a member of group 'console'
 To unlock, run the following command as superuser:
 (If you still have a sudo/root shell somewhere.)
@@ -76,15 +107,19 @@ if [ "$PAM_USER" = 'sysmaint' ]; then
    sysmaint_passwd_info="$(passwd --status sysmaint 2>/dev/null)" || true
    sysmaint_lock_info="$(cut -d' ' -f2 <<< "${sysmaint_passwd_info}")"
    if [ "${sysmaint_lock_info}" = 'L' ]; then
-      echo "$0: ERROR: Reboot and choose 'PERSISTENT Mode - SYSMAINT Session' for system maintenance. See https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Sysmaint"
+      printf '%s\n' "$0: ERROR: Reboot and choose 'PERSISTENT Mode - SYSMAINT Session' for system maintenance. See https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Sysmaint" >&2
    fi
 fi
 
-kernel_cmdline="$(cat /proc/cmdline)"
+kernel_cmdline=""
+if test -f /proc/cmdline; then
+   kernel_cmdline="$(cat -- /proc/cmdline)"
+fi
 
-if [ "$PAM_USER" != 'sysmaint' ] \
+if [ "$PAM_USER" != 'sysmaint' ]; then
-   && [[ "${kernel_cmdline}" =~ 'boot-role=sysmaint' ]]; then
+   if [[ "${kernel_cmdline}" =~ 'boot-role=sysmaint' ]]; then
-   echo "$0: WARNING: Use account 'sysmaint' for system maintenance. See https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Sysmaint"
+      printf '%s\n' "$0: WARNING: Use account 'sysmaint' for system maintenance. See https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Sysmaint" >&2
+   fi
 fi
 
 ## https://forums.whonix.org/t/how-strong-do-linux-user-account-passwords-have-to-be-when-using-full-disk-encryption-fde-too/7698
@@ -93,11 +128,11 @@ fi
 ## Also this should only run for login since securetty covers only login.
 # if [ "$PAM_USER" = "root" ]; then
 #    if [ -f /etc/securetty ]; then
-#       grep_result="$(grep "^[^#]" /etc/securetty)"
+#       grep_result="$(grep -- "^[^#]" /etc/securetty)"
 #       if [ "$grep_result" = "" ]; then
-#          echo "\
+#          printf '%s\n' "\
 # $0: ERROR: Root login is disabled.
-# ERROR: This is because /etc/securetty is empty.
+# ERROR: This is because file '/etc/securetty' is empty.
 # See also:
 # https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/root#login
 # " >&2
@@ -143,7 +178,7 @@ fi
 ## Usage: faillock [--dir /path/to/tally-directory] [--user username] [--reset]
 
 ## Get first line.
-#pam_faillock_output_first_line="$(echo "$pam_faillock_output" | head --lines=1)"
+#pam_faillock_output_first_line="$(printf '%s\n' "$pam_faillock_output" | head --lines=1)"
 while read -t 10 -r pam_faillock_output_first_line ; do
    break
 done <<< "$pam_faillock_output"
@@ -152,24 +187,46 @@ true "pam_faillock_output_first_line: '$pam_faillock_output_first_line'"
 ## example pam_faillock_output_first_line:
 ## user:
 
-user_name="$(echo "$pam_faillock_output_first_line" | str_replace ":" "")"
+user_name="$(printf '%s\n' "$pam_faillock_output_first_line" | str_replace ":" "")"
 ## example user_name:
 ## user
 ## root
 
-pam_faillock_output_count="$(echo "$pam_faillock_output" | wc -l)"
+if [ "$PAM_USER" != "$user_name" ]; then
+   printf '%s\n' "\
+$0: ERROR: Variable 'PAM_USER' '$PAM_USER' does not match variable 'user_name' '$user_name'.
+ERROR: Please report this bug.
+" >&2
+   exit 1
+fi
+
+pam_faillock_output_count="$(printf '%s\n' "$pam_faillock_output" | wc -l)"
 ## example pam_faillock_output_count:
 ## 2
 ## example pam_faillock_output_count:
 ## 4
 
-## Do not count the first two informational textual output lines
+if [[ "$pam_faillock_output_count" == *[!0-9]* ]]; then
-## (starting with "user:" and "When").
+   printf '%s\n' "\
+$0: ERROR: Variable 'pam_faillock_output_count' is not numeric. pam_faillock_output_count: '$pam_faillock_output_count'
+ERROR: Please report this bug.
+" >&2
+   exit 0
+fi
+
+## Do not count the first two informational textual output lines (starting with "user:" and "When") if present,
 failed_login_counter=$(( pam_faillock_output_count - 2 ))
 
 ## example failed_login_counter:
 ## 2
 
+## Ensuring failed_login_counter is not set to a negative value.
+## https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc/pull/305
+if [ "$failed_login_counter" -lt "0" ]; then
+   true "$0: WARNING: Failed login counter is negative. Resetting to 0."
+   failed_login_counter=0
+fi
+
 if [ "$failed_login_counter" = "0" ]; then
    true "$0: INFO: Failed login counter is 0, ok."
    exit 0
@@ -179,24 +236,24 @@ fi
 deny=3
 
 if test -f /etc/security/faillock.conf ; then
-   deny_line=$(grep --invert-match "#" -- /etc/security/faillock.conf | grep -- "deny =")
+   deny_line=$(grep --invert-match "#" -- /etc/security/faillock.conf | grep -- "deny =") || true
-   deny="$(echo "$deny_line" | str_replace "=" "" | str_replace "deny" "" | str_replace " " "")"
+   deny="$(printf '%s\n' "$deny_line" | str_replace "=" "" | str_replace "deny" "" | str_replace " " "")"
    ## Example:
    #deny=50
 fi
 
 if [[ "$deny" == *[!0-9]* ]]; then
-   echo "\
+   printf '%s\n' "\
-$0: ERROR: deny is not numeric. deny: '$deny'
+$0: ERROR: Variable 'deny' is not numeric. deny: '$deny'
 ERROR: Please report this bug.
 " >&2
    exit 0
 fi
 
-remaining_attempts="$(( $deny - $failed_login_counter ))"
+remaining_attempts="$(( deny - failed_login_counter ))"
 
 if [ "$remaining_attempts" -le "0" ]; then
-   echo "\
+   printf '%s\n' "\
 $0: ERROR: Login blocked after $failed_login_counter attempts.
 To unlock, run the following command as superuser:
 (If you still have a sudo/root shell somewhere.)
@@ -211,14 +268,14 @@ https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/root#unlock
    exit 0
 fi
 
-echo "\
+printf '%s\n' "\
-$0: WARNING: $failed_login_counter failed login attempts for user_name '$user_name'.
+$0: WARNING: $failed_login_counter failed login attempts for account '$user_name'.
 Login will be blocked after $deny attempts.
 You have $remaining_attempts more attempts before unlock procedure is required.
 " >&2
 
 if [ "$PAM_SERVICE" = "su" ]; then
-   echo "\
+   printf '%s\n' "\
 $0: NOTE: Type the password. When entering the password, no password feedback (no asterisk (\"*\") symbol) will be shown.
 " >&2
 fi

usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 # /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: stunnel4 | chmod o-rwx "/var/run/stunnel4"
 # /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: iodine | chmod o-rwx "/var/run/iodine"
 # /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: apt-cacher-ng | chmod o-rwx "/var/cache/apt-cacher-ng"
+# /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: approx | chmod o-rwx "/var/cache/approx"
 # /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: statd | chmod o-rwx "/var/lib/nfs"
 # /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: timidity | chmod o-rwx "/etc/timidity"
 # /usr/libexec/security-misc/permission-lockdown: user: uuidd | chmod o-rwx "/run/uuidd"