>`rua` and other similar CLIs make it really easy to review the packages before installing them from AUR too, and if you are doing banking on the same computer, you really have no excuse not to review the software you depend on.
What review should users do?
It appears that, in some cases, these were adding npm as a dependency and installing atomic-lockfile, and in others, these were adding bun and installing js-digest. This was a mass attack against mostly low-use/orphaned/etc packages where maintainership was taken over or a different user uploaded a new version (itself a very simple, low-notice, low-oversight process), and many of the packages clearly had no connection to Node.js at all, so a user who knew enough about each package, and knew what npm was, might notice the oddity in the package, if they reviewed every line of the PKGBUILD, then reviewed the install scripts.
But legitimate AUR packages for packages connected to Node.js also use npm, for example, and at times, use npm install. A user would have to be familiar enough with Archlinux's build system to understand the difference between each part (eg, build() vs install scripts). They'd have to review every PKGBUILD, every install script, and every patch of every AUR package they install. For packages that actually do use npm/bun, they'd have to be familiar enough to know what uses were legitimate and what uses were not, and might have to be up to date on compromised dependencies. And this is still considering a mass attack that was not particularly hidden. Attacks could be made much harder to find.
Asking a user to safely review an AUR package essentially seems like it is asking them to fully understand not just the build process, and programming language, of the upstream package, but also all details of Archlinux's build system. They need to learn how to do this with, as far as I can tell, no real guidance: AUR itself, and the wiki's page on it, just warn that users should carefully review the PKGBUILD and install scripts, without giving any substantial guidance on what to look for or how to review anything. The warnings feel much more like liability-reduction than an attempt to be helpful.
At that point, what is AUR actually offering that installing the upstream package isn't? It feels like the suggested 'safe' way of using AUR would make it just as much work for the user, and require just as much knowledge, as either installing the upstream directly, or even making a package for it.
There is perhaps some room for LLM analysis here: Opus 4.8, Kimi latest, and even Qwen3.6 27B quickly catch at least the current round of malicious packages in my tests. But a motivated attacker could make that more difficult, or dangerous. And a user could also just have those models install the upstream package, with less risk. If they want to use pacman for management, they could likely even have those LLMs generate a package, with less risk.
Not all tools are made for inexperienced people. Not everything is idiot proof. This is OK!
In my experience using the AUR:
1. when you first install the package you can read the build script (and you should). These are in a very standard structure, and if the one you are reading is weird and complicated consider not installing it. No one is forcing you to. Almost every build script I read just downloads a build from a tagged github release.
2. when you get an upgrade you are shown the diff. For almost every AUR package I use this is literally just changing the $VERSION variable and the subsequent $HASH of the download. It is trivial to see if anything (in the AUR script) is happening that is sneaky.
It's really not that scary. And if it's considered scary, there are literally dozens of other linux distros (not to mention Windows or MacOS) you could be using instead.
I'm not asking for myself. Yes, I understand the build process, and know what to check. I've also written PKGBUILDs before and have had packages in AUR. I'm sure you understand it too, as well as many people here.
But many users don't. As far as I can tell, there is very little actual guidance about what to look for, not even to the extent of what you explain here, on the wiki. Users are told to check the PKGBUILD, and warned about AUR-helpers being dangerous, but in practice, it seems AUR-helpers are widely used, and many users likely just click through PKGBUILDs they won't be able to understand.
And, again, this attack was a relatively obvious one. Other attacks could be made much harder to notice.
Worse, distributions like CachyOS are being broadly promoted to a user base who can't be reasonably expected to check over AUR packages themselves. Unlike ArchLinux, those sometimes do seem to promote AUR-helpers. In some cases, those distributions are apparently including AUR-sourced packages in their actual repositories.
Questions about these topics often result in typical Archlinux hostility. And in some sense, that's understandable: there are other distributions that most users should be using, and the frustration of people using Archlinux who shouldn't be is wearing. It is nice to have a distribution that offers the flexibility and space for experimentation that Archlinux does. It's one of the reasons I use it on some of my machines, while at the same time recommending against most others using it.
To some extent, this is just a wide cultural difficulty with Linux, and there isn't a clear answer. On one hand, you want enough gatekeeping to keep users away from potentially dangerous systems they have no interest in understanding, and that they'll rely on without understanding in situations where they shouldn't. On the other, you don't want to keep out users who are interested in learning.
embedding-shape
today at 4:05 PM
> But many users don't. As far as I can tell, there is very little actual guidance about what to look for, not even to the extent of what you explain here, on the wiki. Users are told to check the PKGBUILD, and warned about AUR-helpers being dangerous, but in practice, it seems AUR-helpers are widely used, and many users likely just click through PKGBUILDs they won't be able to understand.
That's where the whole "Not everything is idiot proof" thing comes in. The distribution is pushing the responsibility on users to vet what they do, across everything, not just installing AUR packages, so naturally this also applies to installing 3rd party software.
If you don't know what to look out for, maybe don't install stuff you don't know what it will do. Sucks as an answer if the distribution is looking to "Make it as easy as possible for every user" but that's not Arch Linux ultimately, it does ask you to care about things like that, if you don't want to, it might not be the OS for you. And that's of course OK and not something bad. I know this sounds like gatekeeping, but it's more of a culture difference than anything, and probably not even a problem.
> distributions like CachyOS are being broadly promoted to a user base who can't be reasonably expected to check over AUR packages themselves
That'd suck, but not the impression I've got from CachyOS. There is a FAQ entry that seems to get the gist of AUR correct, that it's basically random software from random users, nothing is assumed safe: https://wiki.cachyos.org/cachyos_basic/faq/#aur-safety-pract...
> this is just a wide cultural difficulty with Linux, and there isn't a clear answer
I don't think "a answer" is needed here. What some read as "gatekeeping" and "Arch Linux hostility" is in reality just a difference of culture, and that's not a bad thing. Some distributions are for making things "easy for newcomers" or some focus on "best UI and UX" and others "most barebones for experienced users to setup themselves", and all of them as valid as the other. The tricky (and slow/time consuming) part is that you have to try a bunch before you find which one(s) aligns with your own perspectives and ideas.
Ultimately, users can learn best together with distributions that align with how they think and want to work.
>What some read as "gatekeeping" and "Arch Linux hostility" is in reality just a difference of culture, and that's not a bad thing.
Oddly enough, when I was writing that, I wasn't thinking about Arch, but Ubuntu. Years ago, I can remember a situation of a PPA being used for developing something I was involved in somehow, and while the PPA specifically noted that users shouldn't use it, they just did anyway, because they wanted what they saw as the latest and greatest versions of those packages. When the PPA owner added a package that set the default wallpaper to a warning about adding the PPA and updating all packages from it blindly, the users blamed them, rather than understanding the message. At the same time, I was actually using that repository legitimately, and it was useful.
So 100%, I agree that it's highly dangerous that the distro's the next tranche of people unfamiliar with linux (gamers dissatisfied with Windows) move over with, are based on hecking Arch. It feels like a massive upcoming footgun.
I think the issue is those repos being based on Arch though, not Arch itself.
porridgeraisin
today at 6:10 PM
To be fair, among all the linux users I know, no one except developers/cs-adjacent would actually get hit by this. The point is that "noob users" use packages that are, to put it short, maintained by a big company. Or it's something that's there in the official repos. And the big companies always maintain their own supply chain till the end, i.e they maintain their aur packages or their curl | bash endpoint themselves. So it ends up being alright.
Stuff that tinkerers use is often some random fork of a fork of a gitHub repo, maintained by someone else, and the aur package maintained by a fourth person. That's where the mess is. Thankfully, these are also the users you can expect to read a pkgbuild diff.
embedding-shape
today at 3:04 PM
> What review should users do?
The same sort of review you'd do if a stranger sends over a project and says "compile and run this" and you actually want whatever it's supposed to do, so you start looking through it.
> It appears that, in some cases, these were adding npm as a dependency and installing atomic-lockfile, and in others, these were adding bun and installing js-digest
That's very suspicious if the package you're about to install doesn't seem to actually need those things. Since "AUR === random strangers on the internet with zero trust", then you need to pay attention to those sort of things.
> Asking a user to safely review an AUR package essentially seems like it is asking them to fully understand not just the build process, and programming language, of the upstream package, but also all details of Archlinux's build system.
Yes, indeed. Same as if you come across a random C++ project on GitHub with 2 stars, do you just pull down the source and compile willy-nilly? Probably not, you carefully inspect it can actually do what you want, how it does it, and so on. AUR is basically like GitHub in this case, zero peer-reviews and users fully responsible for whatever they install.
> At that point, what is AUR actually offering that installing the upstream package isn't?
PKGBUILDs, so you don't have to write them yourself. Not more, not less, just a central place for random strangers to share PKGBUILDs that may or may not work for others.
I hear you, but consider xz. I'm a professional with decades of experience and I'd be lying if I said I'd have caught that. How long would an audit have taken, realistically? You're not wrong, but I don't think the GP is, either.
embedding-shape
today at 3:51 PM
Yeah, xz found its way to official repos, that's way more disturbing and scary that this (faux) issue about malware on AUR/user-generated websites.
I don't review updates to official packages on Arch, I don't think most people have time to do so, it's just way too much. Things change when we talk about AUR though, as those aren't vetted, those you need to take the time to review, otherwise you're basically installing completely unreviewed software from strangers on the internet.
yjftsjthsd-h
today at 1:50 PM
> At that point, what is AUR actually offering that installing the upstream package isn't?
It produces package files that pacman can use. Sure, you can curl|sh or whatever, but that's a good way to litter stuff all over that you can't track or uninstall cleanly.