Tails, the secure live-boot Linux made famous by Edward Snowden, has had a major revision release to Version 1.3.

The new version, released after testing since February 12, combines various security fixes with new apps and simplified install, the developers say.

The developers want to kill off the previous version, Tails 1.2.3, as soon as possible, with a list of 14 security issues covering everything from the Tor browser and its network security services (NSS) through to a sudo privilege escalation bug.

The new version of the Tor browser restricts reads and writes to a limited number of folders, and to help manage passwords, Tails 1.2.3 includes the Keyringer command line utility.

To make manual installation easier, the Mac and Linux installs no longer need isohybrid command support, and Tails now bundles GnuPG 2, which improves its support for OpenPGP smartcards.

Other major security fixes in Tails 1.3 include fixes to xdg-utils, the Jasper JPEG-2000 image manipulation library, a fix for the underlying Debian glibc implementation (eglibc), Open JDK, Unzip, the krb5 Kerberos library, Ruby 1.9.1, xorg-server, Libre Office, dbus, Bind 9, and the e2fsprogs file system utilities.

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Originally posted here:

Snowden's favourite Linux - Tails - rushes sec-fix version to market