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you focus solely on writing. All editing tools can appear with just one 

click.” The distraction-free writing mode also clears away the additional 

navigation buttons. WordPress has introduced its Twenty Fifteen theme 

with this update, which features Google Noto fonts. Noto supports up to 44 

languages. WordPress 4.1 has an advanced plug-in installer, which gives 

suggestions based on administrator recommendations. Developers have 

also focused on the security aspects in this update. The update fixes the 

misconstructed script in PHP code. 

Users can now log out of their WordPress site from the user profile 

section also. This is in order to address the very common mistake users 

make of forgetting to log out from their WordPress site. 

Google Drive now supports the ODF file format   

Google has surprised open source enthusiasts with 

a gift. The company has finally announced its 

support for the ODF format in its Drive suite 

of application services. This is great news for 

open source enthusiasts who had trouble 

sharing ODF format files with their friends 

using the Microsoft Office suite.

Earlier, open source users had to export 

the document in .doc or .docx to share the 

files with other users. With ODF file support, 

Google is tapping the category of users who 

might have been contemplating abandoning Google Drive services due to 

interoperability issues.

When the British government made ODF the default file format for 

government-related work, Google service users had to ditch it and get an 

ODF-supported office suite. Other European countries are also adopting 

open source pretty rapidly. With such a situation, Google had to start 

offering support for the ODF file format with Google Drive. In short, it was 

the UK government that created the demand for ODF support.

DiyouPCB, a new open source, do-it-yourself, PCB printer   

An open source PCB printer, designed by 

two Spanish brothers based in Madrid, has 

been released. It is powered by 

an Atmel-based Arduino 

Uno (ATmega328) 

development board. Dubbed 

as DiyouPCB, it has been 

inspired by the RepRap 

3D printer. The printer 

has been in development for the 

last few years and the brothers are now 

focused on their next project, called DiyouPCB 

TwinTeeth. This innovative circuit board printer 

is 

expected to revolutionise the working strategy of developers while 

they create new projects and devices. 

The brothers have been quite passionate about design, electronics, 

robotics, mechatronics and software development. That’s why they love 

to design open source, low-cost robotic tools which can help people 

New Trojan detected in 

Linux systems with rootkit 

installation   

A new Trojan has been detected. It 

infects Linux systems and is supposed 

to be building an arsenal of devices 

which will be used for DDoS or denial-

of-service attacks. This threat has been 

named XOR.DDos. Based on the Linux 

environment, the installation procedure 

of this Trojan keeps varying and it also 

runs a rootkit so that detection can be 

avoided. In Windows systems, too, a 

similar Trojan has been spotted. This 

news has been shared by Peter Kalnai, 

the malware analyst at Avast, and he 

said that the Trojan targets unexplored 

zones in Linux systems. According 

to Kalnai, it’s tough to set a rootkit 

component in a Linux environment as 

it needs compliance with the operating 

systems on the victims’ systems.

XOR.DDoS is launched on 

those systems that still use default 

log-ins across various network IDs. 

If the attack is successful, then the 

Trojan starts determining whether its 

compatible with the kernel or not. 

Then it installs its rootkit to avoid 

detection. The rootkit helps the Trojan 

in concealing its files, which merely 

hints that some kind of attack has taken 

place yet victims stay unaware about 

the compromise. According to Kalnai, 

this rootkit angle of the Trojan was first 

discovered in October 2014. The Trojan 

and all its variants can infect 32-bit and 

64-bit Linux Web servers and desktops, 

as well as the ARM architecture. 

This indicates that routers, Internet 

of Things devices and ARM servers 

could also be affected. It’s not that 

several infections have taken place but 

this Trojan has the potential to impact 

enterprises as well as individuals—the 

latter being more vulnerable to attacks 

as enterprises follow stricter security 

measures. A small group is suspected 

to be behind the attacks as the Trojan is 

not present in forums. 

www.OpenSourceForu.com 

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 OPeN SOurCe FOr yOu 

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 February 2015 

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