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My Debian Activities in June 2025

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-thirty-second month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [DLA 4221-1] libblockdev security update of one embargoed CVE related to obtaining full root privileges.
  • [hardening udisks2] uploaded new version of udisks2 with a hardening patch related to DLA 4221-1
  • [DLA 4235-1] sudo security update to fix one embargoed CVE related to prevent a local privilege escalation.
  • [#1106867] got permission to upload kmail-account-wizard; the package was marked as accepted in July.

This month I also did a week of FD duties and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the eighty-third ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1465-1] libblockdev security update to fix one embargoed CVE in Buster, related to obtaining full root privileges.
  • [ELA-1475-1] gst-plugins-good1.0 security update to fix 16 CVEs in Stretch. This also includes cherry picking other commits to make this fixes possible.
  • [ELA-1476-1] sudo security update to fix one embargoed CVE in Buster, Stretch and Jessie. The fix is related to prevent a local privilege escalation.

This month I also did a week of FD duties and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded bugfix versions of:

  • … lprng to update translations.
  • … mtink to update translations
  • … cups to fix a FTBFS introduced by changes to systemd

Thanks a lot again to the Release Team who quickly handled all my unblock bugs!

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded bugfix versions of:

  • … siril (sponsored upload to experimental)
  • … calceph (sponsored upload to experimental)

Debian Mobcom

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

misc

This month I uploaded bugfix versions of:

Unfortunately I stumbled over a discussion about RFPs. One part of those involved wanted to automatically close older RFPs, the other part just wanted to keep them. But nobody suggested to really take care of those RFPs. Why is it easier to spend time on talking about something instead of solving the real problem? Anyway, I had a look at those open RFPs. Some of them can be just closed because they haven’t been closed when uploading the corresponding package. For some others the corresponding software has not seen any upstream activity for several years and depends on older software no longer in Debian (like Python 2). Such bugs can be just closed. Some requested software only works together with long gone technology (for example the open Twitter API). Such bugs can be just closed. Last but not least, even the old RFPs contain nice software, that is still maintained upstream and useful. One example is ta-lib that I uploaded in June. So, please, let’s put our money where out mouths are. My diary of closed RFP bugs is on people.d.o. If only ten people follow suit, all bugs can be closed within a year.

FTP master

It is still this time of the year when just a few packages arrive in NEW: it is Hard Freeze. So please don’t hold it against me that I enjoy the sun more than processing packages in NEW. This month I accepted 104 and rejected 13 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 105.

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My Debian Activities in May 2025

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-thirty-first month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [DLA 4168-1] openafs security update of three CVEs related to theft of credentials, crashes or buffer overflows.
  • [DLA 4196-1] kmail-account-wizard security update to fix one CVE related to a man-in-the-middle attack when using http instead of https to get some configuration.
  • [DLA 4198-1] espeak-ng security update to fix five CVEs related to buffer overflow or underflow in several functions and a floating point exception. Thanks to Samuel Thibault for having a look at my debdiff.
  • [#1106867] created Bookworm pu-bug for kmail-account-wizard. Thanks to Patrick Franz for having a look at my debdiff.

I also continued my to work on libxmltok and suricata. This month I also had to do some support on seger, for example to inject packages newly needed for builds.

Debian ELTS

This month was the eighty-second ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1444-1] kmail-account-wizard security update to fix two CVEs in Buster related to a man-in-the-middle attack when using http instead of https to get some configuration. The other issue is about a misleading UI, in which the state of encryption is shown wrong.
  • [ELA-1445-1] espeak-ng security update to fix five CVEs in Stretch and Buster. The issues are related to buffer overflow or underflow in several functions and a floating point exception.

All packages I worked on have been on the list of longstanding packages. For example espeak-ng has been on this list for more than nine month. I now understood that there is a reason why packages are on this list. Some parts of the software have been almost completely reworked, so that the patches need a “reverse” rework. For some packages this is easy, but for others this rework needs quite some time. I also continued to work on libxmltok and suricata.

Debian Printing

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded bugfix versions of:

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded bugfix versions of:

misc

This month I uploaded bugfix versions of:

Thanks a lot to the Release Team who quickly handled all my unblock bugs!

FTP master

It is this time of the year when just a few packages arrive in NEW: it is Hard Freeze. So I enjoy this period and basically just take care of kernels or other important packages. As people seem to be more interested in discussions than in fixing RC bugs, my period of rest seems to continue for a while. So thanks for all this valuable discussions and really thanks to the few people who still take care of Trixie. This month I accepted 146 and rejected 10 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 147.

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My Debian Activities in March 2025

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-ninth month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [DLA 4096-1] librabbitmq security update to one CVE related to credential visibility when using tools on the command line.
  • [DLA 4103-1] suricata security update to fix second CVEs related to bypass of HTTP-based signature, mishandling of multiple fragmented packets, logic errors, infinite loops, buffer overflows, unintended file access and using large amount of memory.

Last but not least I started to work on the second batch of fixes for suricata CVEs and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the eightieth ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1360-1] ffmpeg security update to fix three CVEs in Stretch related to out-of-bounds read, assert errors and NULL pointer dereferences.
  • [ELA-1361-1] ffmpeg security update to fix four CVEs in Buster related to out-of-bounds read, assert errors and NULL pointer dereferences.
  • [ELA-1362-1] librabbitmq security update to fix two CVEs in Stretch and Buster related to heap memory corruption due to integer overflow and credential visibility when using the tools on the command line.
  • [ELA-1363-1] librabbitmq security update to fix one CVE in Jessie related to credential visibility when using the tools on the command line.
  • [ELA-1367-1] suricata security update to fix five CVEs in Buster related to bypass of HTTP-based signature, mishandling of multiple fragmented packets, logic errors, infinite loops and buffer overflows.

Last but not least I started to work on the second batch of fixes for suricata CVEs and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

  • … cups-filters to make it work with a new upstream version of qpdf again.

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Matomo

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Unfortunately I had a rather bad experience with package hijacking this month. Of course errors can always happen, but when I am forced into a discussion about the advantages of hijacking, I am speechless about such self-centered behavior. Oh fellow Debian Developers, is it really that hard to acknowledge a fault and tidy up afterwards? What a sad trend.

Debian IoT

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of almost all packages. First I uploaded them to experimental and afterwards to unstable to get the latest upstream versions into Trixie.

misc

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

meep and meep-mpi-default are no longer supported on 32bit architectures.

FTP master

This month I accepted 343 and rejected 38 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 347.

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My Debian Activities in February 2025

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-eighth month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [DLA 4072-1] xorg-server security update to fix eight CVEs related to possible privilege escalation in X.
  • [DLA 4073-1] ffmpeg security update to fix three CVEs related to out-of-bounds read, assert errors and NULL pointer dereferences. This was the second update that I announced last month.

Last but not least I did some days of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-ninth ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1337-1] xorg-server security update to fix eight CVEs in Buster, Stretch and Jessie, related to possible privilege escalation in X.
  • [ELA-882-2] amanda regression update to improve a fix for privilege escalation. This old regression was detected by Beuc during his work as FD and now finally fixed.

Last but not least I did some days of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

  • … hplip to fix some bugs and let hplip migrate to testing again.

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Matomo

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Finally matomo was uploaded. Thanks a lot to Utkarsh Gupta and William Desportes for doing most of the work to make this happen.

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to upload packages.

Have you ever heard of poliastro? It was a package to do calculations related to astrodynamics and orbital mechanics? It was archived by upstream end of 2023. I am now trying to revive it under the new name boinor and hope to get it back into Debian over the next months.

This is almost the last month that Patrick, our Outreachy intern for the Debian Astro project, is handling his tasks. He is working on automatic updates of the indi 3rd-party driver.

Debian IoT

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

misc

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

FTP master

This month I accepted 437 and rejected 64 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 445.

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My Debian Activities in January 2025

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-seventh month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [DLA 4014-1] gnuchess security update to fix one CVE related to arbitrary code execution via crafted PGN (Portable Game Notation) data.
  • [DLA 4015-1] rsync update to fix five CVEs related leaking information from the server or writing files outside of the client’s intended destination.
  • [DLA 4015-2] rsync update to fix an upstream regression.
  • [DLA 4039-1] ffmpeg update to fix three CVEs related to possible integer overflows, double-free on errors and out-of-bounds access.

As new CVEs for ffmpeg appeared, I started to work again for an update of this package

Last but not least I did a week of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-eighth ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1290-1] rsync update to fix five CVEs in Buster, Stretch and Jessie related leaking information from the server or writing files outside of the client’s intended destination.
  • [ELA-1290-2] rsync update to fix an upstream regression.
  • [ELA-1313-1] ffmpeg update to fix six CVEs in Buster related to possible integer overflows, double-free on errors and out-of-bounds access.
  • [ELA-1314-1] ffmpeg update to fix six CVEs in Stretch related to possible integer overflows, double-free on errors and out-of-bounds access.

As new CVEs for ffmpeg appeared, I started to work again for an update of this package

Last but not least I did a week of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

  • … brlaser new upstream release (in new upstream repository)

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Matomo

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

  • … calceph sponsored upload of new upstream version
  • … libxisf sponsored upload of new upstream version

Patrick, our Outreachy intern for the Debian Astro project, is doing very well and deals with task after task. He is working on automatic updates of the indi 3rd-party drivers and maybe the results of his work will already be part of Trixie.

Debian IoT

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

misc

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

FTP master

This month I accepted 385 and rejected 37 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 402.

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My Debian Activities in December 2024

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-sixth month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian.

I worked on updates for ffmpeg and haproxy in all releases. Along the way I marked more CVEs as not-affected than I had to fix. So finally there was no upload needed for haproxy anymore. Unfortunately testing ffmpeg was not as easy, as the recommended “just look whether mpv can play random videos” is not really satisfying. So the upload will happen only in January.

I also wonder whether fixing glewlwyd is really worth the effort, as the software is already EOL upstream.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-seventhth ELTS month. During my allocated time I worked on ffmpeg, haproxy, amanda and kmail-account-wizzard.

Like LTS, all CVEs of haproxy and some of ffmpeg could be marked as not-affected and testing of the other packages was/is not really straight forward. So the final upload will only happen in January as well.

Debian Printing

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Matomo

Thanks a lot to William Desportes for all fixes of my bad PHP packaging.

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

I again sponsored an upload of calceph.

Debian IoT

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

misc

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

I also sponsored uploads of emacs-lsp-docker, emacs-dape, emacs-oauth2, gpgmngr, libjs-jush.

FTP master

This month I accepted 330 and rejected 13 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 335.

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My Debian Activities in November 2024

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-fifth month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [DLA 3968-1] netatalk security update to fix four CVEs related to heap buffer overflow and writing arbitrary files. The patches have been prepared by the maintainer.
  • [DLA 3976-1] tgt update to fix one CVE related to not using a propper seed for rand()
  • [DLA 3977-1] xfpt update to fix one CVE related to a stack-based buffer overflow
  • [DLA 3978-1] editorconfig-core update to fix two CVEs related to buffer overflows.

I also continued to work on a fix for glewlwyd, which is more difficult than expected. Besides I started to work on ffmpeg and haproxy.

Last but not least I did a week of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-sixth ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1259-1]editorconfig-core security update for two CVEs in Buster to fix buffer overflows.

I also started to work on a fix for kmail-account-wizzard. Unfortunately preparing a testing environment takes some time and I did not finish testing this month. Besides I started to work on ffmpeg and haproxy.

Last but not least I did a week of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Matomo

Unfortunately I didn’t found any time to work on this topic.

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

I also sponsored an upload of calceph.

Debian IoT

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded new packages or new upstream or bugfix versions of:

misc

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

I also did some NMU of opensta, kdrill, glosstex, irsim, pagetools, afnix, cpm, to fix some RC bugs.

FTP master

This month I accepted 266 and rejected 16 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 269.

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My Debian Activities in September 2024

FTP master

This month I accepted 441 and rejected 29 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 448.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, but this month I really accepted the same number of packages as last month.

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-third month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [unstable] libcupsfilters security update to fix one CVE related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [unstable] cups-filters security update to fix two CVEs related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [unstable] cups security update to fix one CVE related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [DSA 5778-1] prepared package for cups-filters security update to fix two CVEs related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [DSA 5779-1] prepared package for cups security update to fix one CVE related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [DLA 3905-1] cups-filters security update to fix two CVEs related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [DLA 3904-1] cups security update to fix one CVE related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers
  • [DLA 3905-1] cups-filters security update to fix two CVEs related to validation of IPP attributes obtained from remote printers

Despite the announcement the package libppd in Debian is not affected by the CVEs related to CUPS. By pure chance there is an unrelated package with the same name in Debian. I also answered some question about the CUPS related uploads. Due to the CUPS issues, I postponed my work on other packages to October.

Last but not least I did a week of FD this month and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-fourth ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1186-1]cups-filters security update for two CVEs in Stretch and Buster to fix the IPP attribute related CVEs.
  • [ELA-1187-1]cups-filters security update for one CVE in Jessie to fix the IPP attribute related CVEs (the version in Jessie was not affected by the other CVE).

I also started to work on updates for cups in Buster, Stretch and Jessie, but their uploads will happen only in October.

I also did a week of FD and attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded …

  • … libcupsfilters to also fix a dependency and autopkgtest issue besides the security fix mentioned above.
  • … splix for a new upstream version. This package is managed now by OpenPrinting.

Last but not least I tried to prepare an update for hplip. Unfortunately this is a nerve-stretching task and I need some more time.

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Matomo

This month I even found some time to upload packages that are dependencies of Matomo …

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded a new upstream or bugfix version of:

Most of the uploads were related to package migration to testing. As some of them are in non-free or contrib, one has to build all binary versions. From my point of view handling packages in non-free or contrib could be very much improved, but well, they are not part of Debian …

Anyway, starting in December there is an Outreachy project that takes care of automatic updates of these packages. So hopefully it will be much easier to keep those package up to date. I will keep you informed.

Debian IoT

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Debian Mobcom

This month I did source uploads of all the packages that were prepared last month by Nathan and started the transition. It went rather smooth except for a few packages where the new version did not propagate to the tracker and they got stuck in old failing autopkgtest. Anyway, in the end all packages migrated to testing.

I also uploaded new upstream releases or fixed bugs in:

misc

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Most of those uploads were needed to help packages to migrate to testing.

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My Debian Activities in August 2024

FTP master

This month I accepted 441 and rejected 15 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 442.

I am ashamed of some occurrences that happened this month and I apologize for this. Unfortunately I have no idea how to prevent this in the future without becoming a solo entertainer.

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-second month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian.

  • [#1073518] bookworm-pu: cups 2.4.2-3+deb12u6 has been closed
  • [#1074439] bookworm-pu: cups 2.4.2-3+deb12u7 has been closed
  • [#1073519] bullseye-pu: cups 2.3.3op2-3+deb11u7 has been closed
  • [#1074438] bullseye-pu: cups 2.3.3op2-3+deb11u8 has been closed

Unfortunately Bullseye was not handed over to LTS in August. So I only prepared new packages of asterisk, libvirt and tinyproxy and will upload them next month.

Last but not least I did a week of FD this month.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-third ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1160-1]tiff security update for two CVEs in Jessie and Stretch. The Buster upload was already done before. This upload fixed a segmentation fault and a memory leak
  • [ELA-1161-1]libvirt security update for six CVEs to fix issues related to use-after-free, an off-by-one, a null pointer dereference, a badly handled mutex, a privilege escalation and breaking out of the sVirt confinement. In this case only Jessie and Stretch needed an update.
  • [ELA-1166-1]frr security update for one CVEs in Buster to fix a missing length check.

I also did a week of FD.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded …

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded a new upstream or bugfix version of:

Debian Mobcom

The following packages have been prepared by the GSoC student Nathan:

It was so much fun working with Nathan. Unfortunately GSoC is over now, but Nathan will continue working in Debian and become a Debian Maintainer.

misc

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

I also filed an RM bug against meep-openmpi. As Adrian made me ware, this package is no longer needed.

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My Debian Activities in July 2024

FTP master

This month I accepted 502 and rejected 40 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 515.

In case you want to upload dozens of packages, it would be nice to give some heads-up before. It is kind of a shock to see a full NEW queue in the morning, though it was much shorter in the evening before.

Debian LTS

This was my hundred-twenty-first month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian.

  • [#1074439] bookworm-pu: cups 2.4.2-3+deb12u7 has been marked for accept

This month I finished the new version of tiff for Bullseye (and Bookworm). The upload will follow, when Bullseye has been handed over to the LTS team in August.

Last but not least I attended the monthly LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian ELTS

This month was the seventy-second ELTS month. During my allocated time I uploaded or worked on:

  • [ELA-1126-1-1]exim4 security update for one CVE. This was the delayed ELA I mentioned in my last report.
  • [ELA-1144-1-1]exim4 security update for one CVE to fix parsing of multiline RFC 2231 header filenames in Stretch and Buster. Jessie was not affected by this issue.
  • Uploaded new versions of tiff for Jessie and Stretch that got stuck in the autopkgtests.

For whatever reason, I had trouble with the CI again. The new tiff package wanted to run the autopkgtest of cups but never did it. So the corresponding ELA will appear only in August.

I also continued to work on an update for libvirt. There really is a reason why some packages don’t get much attention. Nevertheless someone has to take care of them. I also did a week of FD and attended the LTS/ELTS meeting.

Debian Printing

This month I uploaded …

This work is generously funded by Freexian!

Debian Astro

This month I uploaded a new upstream or bugfix version of:

Debian IoT

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of:

Debian Mobcom

This month I uploaded …

The following packages have been prepared by the GSoC student Nathan:

misc

This month I uploaded new upstream or bugfix versions of: