libps4000a

MEDIUM

maintainer mti 0 votes scanned 2026-11-01 00:21:48.120785

View on AUR

Why flagged

The PKGBUILD downloads a prebuilt binary Debian package (.deb) from labs.picotech.com, which is PicoTech's own Linux software distribution subdomain (they host their Linux drivers/libraries there — it is the official vendor channel for their Linux packages, not a random personal host). The binary is a closed-source proprietary shared library that will be installed and executed on the user's system. The integrity check is only MD5 (weak, but present). The main concern is that a prebuilt, closed-source binary from a vendor subdomain is being installed without source verification, and labs.picotech.com is not a widely-known primary release domain. However, this is the actual official PicoTech Linux repository subdomain used for their Debian packages, making this more of a 'vendor binary repackaging' pattern common in AUR for hardware drivers. The risk is real but typical for proprietary hardware vendor packages — medium severity is appropriate: executed binary from a non-mainstream host with only MD5 integrity checking, but it is the legitimate vendor's distribution channel.

Triggered rules

Medium source=() URL on a non-standard host source_untrusted_domain

One or more source=() URLs point to a host outside the trusted allowlist (github.com, gitlab.com, codeberg.org, pypi.org, …).

PKGBUILD:19 source=("http://labs.picotech.com/debian/pool/main/libp/libps4000a/${pkgname}_${pkgver//_/-}_amd64.deb")

Medium AI review llm_review

An AI model (anthropic/claude-4.6-sonnet-20260217) reviewed this and agrees it is MEDIUM (confidence 72%): The PKGBUILD downloads a prebuilt binary Debian package (.deb) from labs.picotech.com, which is PicoTech's own Linux software distribution subdomain (they host their Linux drivers/libraries there — it is the official vendor channel for their Linux packages, not a random personal host). The binary is a closed-source proprietary shared library that will be installed and executed on the user's system. The integrity check is only MD5 (weak, but present). The main concern is that a prebuilt, closed-source binary from a vendor subdomain is being installed without source verification, and labs.picotech.com is not a widely-known primary release domain. However, this is the actual official PicoTech Linux repository subdomain used for their Debian packages, making this more of a 'vendor binary repackaging' pattern common in AUR for hardware drivers. The risk is real but typical for proprietary hardware vendor packages — medium severity is appropriate: executed binary from a non-mainstream host with only MD5 integrity checking, but it is the legitimate vendor's distribution channel.

PKGBUILD

1 offending line(s) highlighted

      1# Maintainer: Mikael Tillenius <mti at tillenius dot com>
    
      2pkgname=libps4000a
    
      3pkgver=2.1.34_2r2014
    
      4pkgrel=1
    
      5pkgdesc="library for picotech oscilloscope 4000a series (4824)"
    
      6arch=('x86_64')
    
      7url="http://www.picotech.com/linux.html"
    
      8license=('custom')
    
      9groups=()
    
      10depends=(libusb)
    
      11optdepends=()
    
      12provides=()
    
      13conflicts=()
    
      14replaces=()
    
      15backup=()
    
      16options=(!strip)
    
      17install=
    
      18changelog=
    
      19source=("http://labs.picotech.com/debian/pool/main/libp/libps4000a/${pkgname}_${pkgver//_/-}_amd64.deb")
    
      20md5sums=('faf0a722a0ab3bb4f8cf40cb090152fc')
    
      21
    
      22package() {
    
      23  tar -xf data.tar.xz -C "${pkgdir}"
    
      24  chmod -R go-w $pkgdir
    
      25  chown -R root:root $pkgdir
    
      26}
    
      27

Scan history

Scanned at (UTC)	Severity	Rules
2026-11-01 00:21:48	Medium	2
2026-10-31 00:07:41	Medium	2
2026-10-30 00:29:30	Medium	2
2026-10-29 00:13:55	Medium	2
2026-10-28 00:06:54	Medium	2
2026-10-27 00:23:28	Medium	2
2026-10-26 00:12:40	Medium	2
2026-10-25 00:20:48	Medium	2
2026-10-24 00:14:55	Medium	2
2026-10-23 00:02:19	Medium	2
2026-10-22 00:13:10	Medium	2
2026-10-21 00:12:50	Medium	2
2026-10-20 00:10:31	Medium	2
2026-10-19 00:03:55	Medium	2
2026-10-18 00:06:55	Medium	2
2026-10-17 00:21:55	Medium	2
2026-10-16 00:12:47	Medium	2
2026-10-15 00:28:05	Medium	2
2026-10-14 00:06:47	Medium	2
2026-10-13 00:23:45	Medium	2