FOSS Force has just learned from Wordfence, a security company that focuses on the open source WordPress content management platform, that a popular plugin used…
Posts published by “FOSS Force”
A security vulnerability in the open source ImageMagick graphics tool used by a large number of websites could allow a malicious payload to be executed onsite.
ImageMagick, an open source suite of tools for working with graphic images used by a large number of websites, has been found to contain a serious security vulnerability that puts sites using the software at risk for malicious code to be executed onsite. Security experts consider exploitation to be so easy they’re calling it “trivial,” and exploits are already circulating in the wild. The biggest risk is to sites that allows users to upload their own image files.
Information about the vulnerability was made public Tuesday afternoon by Ryan Huber, a developer and security researcher, who wrote that he had little choice but to post about the exploit.
On Tuesday, May 3, people in communities around the world will gather to take a stand against digital rights management.
Tuesday May 3 is International Day Against DRM, which for ten years has been an annual even to protest and build awareness about digital rights management. The event is sponsored by the organization Defective by Design, the anti-DRM initiative of the Free Software Foundation.

These are the ten most read articles on FOSS Force for the month of April, 2016. 1. Five Linux Distros that Break the Mold by…
Newly discovered Windows security hole bypasses AppLocker and lets apps run without admin rights. Proof-of-concept code published.
This is one of those “look what I found while looking for something else” sort of stories. Casey Smith was trying to solve a problem and accidentally discovered a security vulnerability that affects business and server editions of Windows 7 and up.
The Mexican distro Escuelas, or ‘School,’ Linux was designed to give extended life to aging hardware in financially strapped school districts in Latin America and is based on Bodhi Linux.
On Monday, a GNU/Linux distro designed to be used in schools, Escuelas Linux, released version 4.4. Just how dedicated to education are the developers of this distro? Plenty. In case your Spanish is as rusty as ours, the Spanish name Escuelas translates to “schools” in English.
There are more than a few things that are unusual about Escuelas Linux. For one, although ultimately derived from Ubuntu, it’s not a first generation descendant on the Ubuntu tree, but traces it’s *buntu roots by way of Bodhi Linux. The distro also uses the Moksha desktop, which Bodhi developed after becoming unhappy with the direction that Enlightenment was taking.
The FOSS Force Poll
While it’s good to know that voters in our poll are aware that software patents remain very much a threat to free tech, the small number of people who voted might indicate a lack of awareness on the issue by newcomers to FOSS.
Another poll with results that aren’t a surprise. In this poll we wondered if you thought that software patents remain a threat to Linux and FOSS. Yup, you do. The results were pretty lopsided and not at all difficult to interpret.

The software development specialist Chariot adds open source Hazelcast 3.6 to its enterprise portfolio as the two companies announce partnership at the Philly ETE 2016 conference.
Hazelcast, a leading provider of open source operational in-memory computing, today announced a partnership with Chariot Solutions, a leading enterprise application and mobile development consulting firm, at the Philly Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise 2016 conference.
Chariot has extensive open source experience, with many of its consultants actively contributing to key OS Java projects. Working with partners, the company advises clients on the evolving open source Java landscape, delivering tailored solutions which incorporate frameworks and tools that are commercially viable due to established community support and enhancement. Prior to signing an official partnership agreement, the two companies had worked together on several projects in telecoms and media.




“DuckDuckGo’s focus is to become the best search engine for programmers,” Bill wrote, “and we’d love your help improving our open-source Linux Instant Answers. There’s currently a couple of cheat sheets 



