Since we are getting closer to the last month of this year and Christmas, the tech industry was a bit on the “calm” side this week. Atlassian has patched two critical vulnerabilities that affect Bitbucket and Crowd products. Intel has launched its controversial On Demand platform which requires payments to fully utilize the CPUs, even if all the accelerators are physically in it. While Intel is in pursuit of different payment models, China is discussing investing in graphene-based CPU production.
Atlassian patches two critical flaws in Crowd and Bitbucket
Atlassian has fixed two flaws in its Bitbucket Server and Data Center products that are present in all versions since 7.0.0 and in its Crowd Server and Data Center 3.0.0 software. Both vulnerabilities are rated 9 out of 10 on the CVSS system. The Bitbucket vulnerability allows command injection, thus executing code on the system while the Crowd vulnerability enables bypassing the password check when connecting from an IP in the allow list.
Intel’s software-defined CPU platform is now officially available
Intel has updated the On Demand page which explains the software-defined silicon (SDSi) and the payment models. The platform offers two payment model options: Activation Model and Consumption Model. Activation Model requires a one-time fee to unlock some features on CPUs such as additional accelerators and security extensions, while Consumption Model requires payment depending on demand.
Oracle Linux 8.7 is now available for download
Oracle has announced the release of Oracle Linux 8.7. The new version of Oracle Linux comes with two kernel versions as previous versions, Red Hat Compatible Kernel and Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7, and the latter is enabled in fresh installations. The new version brings many package updates all over the operating system, and additional improvements targeting high availability and clusters.
China is discussing investing in graphane-based chips
Some organizations and companies in China have discussed investing in manufacturing graphane-based chips. Graphene has so great conductivity and it loses so little energy as heat that graphene-based transistors have the potential of running at 1,000 GHz frequency. The biggest obstacle to achieving this technology is the difficulty in the mass production of graphene.
CloudLinux unveils the new license, CloudLinux OS Admin
CloudLinux has announced a new CL OS Admin license that allows up to five users to access all features and benefits on a VPS/Dedicated server. CloudLinux notes that the new license delivers the same security, stability, and performance functionality for all websites with an isolated virtual environment as well as the file system provided by LVE Manager and CageFS. The new CloudLinux OS Admin delivers flexibility for hosting providers who need five or fewer accounts but with PRO features.
VMware Fusion 13 comes with support for Apple chips
VMware Fusion 13 is now available and it brings support for the latest Macs that utilize Apple silicon under the hood. The new version of VMware’s Mac-focused virtualization software supports additional guest operating systems, including Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Debian 11, and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. It also delivers a virtual TPM 2.0 device and comes with new features for ESXi hosts. The company offers a free upgrade for Fusion 12 users who bought their licenses after 15th October this year.
Manifest v3-based browser extensions are coming to Firefox
Mozilla has begun accepting Manifest v3-based web browser extensions for signing, which are expected to be supported in Firefox 109. Manifest v3, which sets the capabilities of the newest generation extensions, has caused some controversies since it takes away some features. However, the changes caused controversies since Manifest v3 removes some capabilities with security in mind, which existed in v2, and Electronic Frontier Foundation thinks it will hurt innovation.