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SFP#24: The status of Free Software with Karen Sandler and Alexander Sander

13. Februar 2024 um 23:00

SFP#24: The status of Free Software with Karen Sandler and Alexander Sander

Have there been any changes for Free Software in Europe or the USA in the last year? How is Free Software viewed by legislators? What can we do to support software freedom? Karen Sandler and Alexander Sander are active in the Free Software movement and share their views on the current status of Free Software in our society.

Karen Sandler is the executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy and has a background in law and engineering. Our second guest for this episode is the FSFE's Senior Policy Consultant, Alexander Sander. In his work, Alex focuses on policy topics, always raising the status of Free Software within Europe. Over the past year, he has met with many decision-makers in Europe such as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) or officials from the European Commission and Council, to talk about Free Software, for example in relation to the AI Act, the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), or the Product Liability Directive (PLD).

At the same time, across the ocean, the Software Freedom Conservancy has been working with a broad alliance to advocate for the right to repair.

In short a lot has happened in the past year. Luckily, Alex and Karen are here to talk with our host Bonnie about the current situation and what we still need to do for software freedom. Learn more about the state of Free Software with Alex and Karen and find out how you can support software freedom.

This is the perfect episode for everybody who needs a quick summary of the past year. Let's start software freedom!

Show notes

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Celebrate I Love Free Software Day +++ Interoperable Europe Act adopted

12. Februar 2024 um 23:00

Celebrate I Love Free Software Day +++ Interoperable Europe Act adopted

Once again, FOSDEM did not disappoint! Meeting the Free Software community in Brussels is always one of the best moments of the year! And just before we meet again to celebrate I Love Free Software Day with the news of the Interoperable Europe Act being adopted! This newsletter also includes our first interviews with 2023 Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants… and more!

Table of contents:

I Love Free Software Day 2024: Join an event!

On 14 February Free Software communities around the world gather to celebrate developers, maintainers, and contributors of Free Software projects. Take part in one of the many events across Europe that celebrate the contributors to our favorite type of software: Free Software!

On this day we reach out to those people behind Free Software and say “Thank you” for their work and help throughout the year.

Visit the activity’s website to learn more about “I Love Free Software Day 2024: Forging the Future with Free Software”.

Interoperable Europe Act adopted, close monitoring vital

The Interoperable Europe Act has been adopted, on 6 February, in plenary with 524 votes in favour, 18 against, and 97 abstentions. Although some of the potential of the regulation got undermined, the Act as a whole is an important opportunity for Free Software and its community to contribute to an interoperable Europe. The FSFE will closely monitor its implementation.

Meet Jannes and Aaron, YH4F 2023 participants

Find out more about the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom participants in the 2023 edition! We are starting this series of interviews talking with Jannes and Aaron: both worked on projects related to school education, and it is particularly interesting to see how these two projects approached different aspects with a similar spirit.

The FSFE partners with the Edulife Foundation to introduce Italian students to Free Software

In the framework of the ITS Academy LAST project, the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Edulife Foundation, the operational partner of ITS Academy LAST, have developed a two-year agreement to deliver educational content to students about Free Software legal aspects, policy, and public awareness.

NGI: € 21.6 million in grants for Free Software

The Next Generation Internet (NGI) Zero consortium, of which the FSFE is a partner, has just unveiled the NGI0 Commons Fund. This new public fund will award 21.6 million euro to small and medium R&D projects developing Free Software technologies that can improve the Internet.

Take action: Help us spread the word about Router Freedom!

Since several countries have officially introduced the possibility for users to use their own routers, we want to encourage people to try out and enjoy this freedom. We need your help to design, publish, and print materials that can be used on booths and at other in-person events, so people can talk about and collectively learn about using their own routers.

  • Leaflet: If we raise 3,000 euros, we can cover the costs for the design and printing of a new leaflet with a nice and intuitive design for the decision tree, as well as with basic information about Router Freedom. As are all our information materials, it will also be available under a free license on our website.
  • Sticker: As a thank you for your help, did you know that you can order our Router Freedom sticker for free to show off on your liberated router/modem?

Quote of the month

I believe Free Software needs a voice at the national as well as the EU level in politics: Software does not exist in an isolated bubble, it’s heavily dependent on the ecosystem that it lives in. In my opinion Free Software as well as open standards are key to creating a society that provides equal access.

Isabel Drost-Fromm (Software Engineer and Member of the Apache Software Foundation)

Contribute to our Newsletter

We would love to hear from you. If you have any thoughts, pictures, or news to share, please send them to us at newsletter@fsfe.org. You can also support us, contribute to our work, and join our community. We would like to thank our community and all the volunteers, supporters, and donors who make our work possible, with a special mention to our translators who make it possible for you to read this newsletter in your mother tongue.

Your editors, Ana and Tommi

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Bruteforce-Einträge in Nextcloud-Datenbank löschen

13. Februar 2024 um 05:00

Nachdem nun unsere Community-Cloud endlich wieder lief, habe ich versucht innerhalb der Gemeinschaft unseren Cloud-Speicher etwas zu bewerben. Bei einigen Nutzern war dieser inzwischen etwas in Vergessenheit geraten, samt den nötigen Passwörtern.

Es kommt natürlich immer wieder vor, dass Zugangsdaten nicht richtig verwahrt werden oder gar ganze Passwörter nicht mehr auffindbar sind. Mehrfache fehlerhafte Eingaben können jedoch, wie im Fall der Nextcloud, dazu führen, dass Nutzer-IPs ausgesperrt bzw. blockiert werden. Diesen Schutz nennt man Bruteforce-Schutz.

Bruteforce-Schutz

Nextcloud bietet einen eingebauten Schutzmechanismus gegen Bruteforce-Angriffe, der dazu dient, das System vor potenziellen Angreifern zu sichern, die wiederholt verschiedene Passwörter ausprobieren. Diese Sicherheitsvorkehrung ist standardmäßig in Nextcloud aktiviert und trägt dazu bei, die Integrität der Daten zu wahren und unautorisierten Zugriff auf das System zu verhindern.

Wie es funktioniert

Die Funktionsweise des Bruteforce-Schutzes wird besonders deutlich, wenn man versucht, sich auf der Anmeldeseite mit einem ungültigen Benutzernamen und/oder Passwort anzumelden. Bei den ersten Versuchen mag es unauffällig erscheinen, doch nach mehreren wiederholten Fehlversuchen wird man feststellen, dass die Überprüfung des Logins mit zunehmender Häufigkeit länger dauert. An dieser Stelle tritt der Bruteforce-Schutz in Kraft, der eine maximale Verzögerung von 25 Sekunden für jeden Anmeldeversuch einführt. Nach erfolgreicher Anmeldung werden sämtliche fehlgeschlagenen Versuche automatisch gelöscht. Wichtig zu erwähnen ist, dass ein ordnungsgemäß authentifizierter Benutzer von dieser Verzögerung nicht mehr beeinträchtigt wird, was die Sicherheit des Systems und die Benutzerfreundlichkeit gleichermaßen gewährleistet.

Bruteforce-Schutz kurzzeitig aushebeln

Hat nun einmal die Falle zugeschnappt und ein Anwender wurde aus der Nextcloud ausgesperrt, so kann sich das Problem über die Zeit von selbst lösen. Es gibt aber auch die Möglichkeit die Datenbank entsprechend zurückzusetzen.

Zuerst wechselt man in das Nextcloud-Verzeichnis. Danach werden über den folgenden OCC-Befehl die Bruteforce-Einträge der Datenbank resetet.

cd /var/www/html/nextcloud/
sudo -u www-data php occ security:bruteforce:reset 0.0.0.0

Neue Bruteforce-Attacken werden natürlich danach wieder geloggt und verdächtige IPs ausgesperrt.

Viel Erfolg!

❌