Source: thehackernews.com
A critical vulnerability in APT, the package manager used by Debian and Ubuntu, allows a man-in-the-middle attacker to swap a verified package with a malicious one during download. The attacker's substituted package runs with root privileges, enabling full system compromise. The flaw is triggered when APT retries failed downloads, a behavior enabled by default starting from Debian 12. Advisories were published on November 4 by Debian, Ubuntu, and APT developers. The attack requires the ability to intercept or modify package downloads in transit. This represents a significant supply chain risk for systems relying on APT for package management. Users of Debian and Ubuntu are strongly advised to apply patches immediately.
