libps4000a

maintainer mti · 0 votes · scanned 2026-08-03 00:08:14.047287
MEDIUM
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)SeverityRules
2026-08-03 00:08:14 MEDIUM 2
2026-08-02 00:16:08 MEDIUM 2
2026-08-01 00:11:18 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-31 00:14:10 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-30 00:17:23 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-29 00:25:53 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-28 00:07:28 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-27 00:24:32 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-26 00:07:32 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-25 00:13:44 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-24 00:02:28 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-23 00:14:47 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-22 00:29:32 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-21 00:24:15 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-20 00:19:49 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-19 00:17:08 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-18 00:14:48 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-17 00:06:16 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-16 00:05:41 MEDIUM 2
2026-07-15 00:09:25 MEDIUM 2

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