The Netherlands joins Europe's gradual migration from Windows to Linux on government PCs

The Netherlands is shifting away from using Windows on government PCs, moving towards Linux as part of a broader European trend. This change is driven by the desire for digital sovereignty, with governments seeking control over their digital infrastructure to mitigate risks associated with geopolitical tensions. According to XDA Developers, some European countries are making this transition to reduce their reliance on non-EU controlled systems.

Researchers at Austria's Graz University of Technology have discovered flaws in file notification systems on various operating systems, including Linux, Android, macOS, and Windows. These flaws, which have existed for decades, could allow malicious users to infer the activities of other computer users. The affected systems include inotify on Linux, introduced in 2005, and ReadDirectoryChangesW on Windows, introduced in 2000, as reported by The Register.

The file notification subsystems in question provide information on file changes, but do not reveal file contents. However, this information can be used as a side channel to launch attacks, such as inter-keystroke-timing attacks, website fingerprinting attacks, and UI redress attacks. These findings were described in a paper by researchers Sudheendra Raghav Neela, Xufan Zhao, Jeanette Angelika Wultsch, Hannes Weissteiner, Florian Draschbacher, Stefan Gast, and Daniel Gruss.

Brief written by urgent.news from XDA Developers, The Register, The Register Science — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.