mendeley-reference-manager

MEDIUM

maintainer mhdi 12 votes scanned 2026-11-01 00:21:48.120785

View on AUR

Why flagged

The package downloads a prebuilt AppImage from a non-whitelisted but official domain (static.mendeley.com), which is an unverifiable executable; however, it is from the project's own infrastructure, reducing risk compared to a personal or unrelated host.

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:38 source=("https://static.mendeley.com/bin/desktop/${pkgname}-${pkgver}-x86_64.AppImage")

Medium Recently orphaned & re-adopted orphaned_readopted

This package was orphaned and re-adopted within the last 30 days — a window where ownership transfers can introduce malicious changes.

Medium AI review llm_review

An AI model (qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507) reviewed this and agrees it is MEDIUM (confidence 90%): The package downloads a prebuilt AppImage from a non-whitelisted but official domain (static.mendeley.com), which is an unverifiable executable; however, it is from the project's own infrastructure, reducing risk compared to a personal or unrelated host.

PKGBUILD

1 offending line(s) highlighted

      1# Maintainer:
    
      2# Contributor: Chiwan Park <chiwanpark@hotmail.com>
    
      3
    
      4pkgname=mendeley-reference-manager
    
      5pkgver=2.150.0
    
      6pkgrel=1
    
      7pkgdesc="Mendeley Reference Manager"
    
      8arch=('x86_64')
    
      9url="https://www.mendeley.com/download-reference-manager"
    
      10license=('LicenseRef-Mendeley')
    
      11depends=('alsa-lib'
    
      12         'at-spi2-core'
    
      13         'bash'
    
      14         'cairo'
    
      15         'dbus'
    
      16         'expat'
    
      17         'glib2'
    
      18         'glibc'
    
      19         'gtk3'
    
      20         'hicolor-icon-theme'
    
      21         'libcups'
    
      22         'libgcc'
    
      23         'libstdc++'
    
      24         'libx11'
    
      25         'libxcb'
    
      26         'libxcomposite'
    
      27         'libxdamage'
    
      28         'libxext'
    
      29         'libxfixes'
    
      30         'libxkbcommon'
    
      31         'libxrandr'
    
      32         'mesa'
    
      33         'nspr'
    
      34         'nss'
    
      35         'pango'
    
      36         'systemd-libs')
    
      37options=('!strip')
    
      38source=("https://static.mendeley.com/bin/desktop/${pkgname}-${pkgver}-x86_64.AppImage")
    
      39sha256sums=('492bcbd86a6bb6d5b782860fe86e3baa6919c092f95c5d55bf6930877eb6c068')
    
      40
    
      41prepare() {
    
      42    chmod +x "${pkgname}-${pkgver}-${CARCH}.AppImage"
    
      43    "./${pkgname}-${pkgver}-${CARCH}.AppImage" --appimage-extract &>/dev/null
    
      44    sed -i "s|Exec=AppRun|Exec=/usr/bin/${pkgname}|g" "squashfs-root/${pkgname}.desktop"
    
      45    rm -r squashfs-root/{usr/lib,"${pkgname}.png"}
    
      46    find squashfs-root -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +
    
      47}
    
      48
    
      49package() {
    
      50    mv squashfs-root/usr "${pkgdir}"
    
      51    install -d "${pkgdir}/usr/bin" "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/${pkgname}" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/applications"
    
      52    mv squashfs-root/* "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/${pkgname}"
    
      53    mv "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/${pkgname}/${pkgname}.desktop" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/applications"
    
      54    ln -s "/usr/lib/${pkgname}/${pkgname}" -t "${pkgdir}/usr/bin"
    
      55}
    
      56

Changes since previous scan

--- PKGBUILD @ 2026-10-15 00:28
+++ PKGBUILD @ 2026-11-01 00:21
@@ -1,39 +1,56 @@
-# Maintainer: Chiwan Park <chiwanpark@hotmail.com>
-pkgname='mendeley-reference-manager'
-pkgver=2.148.0
+# Maintainer:
+# Contributor: Chiwan Park <chiwanpark@hotmail.com>
+
+pkgname=mendeley-reference-manager
+pkgver=2.150.0
 pkgrel=1
-pkgdesc='Mendeley Reference Manager'
+pkgdesc="Mendeley Reference Manager"
 arch=('x86_64')
-depends=('harfbuzz' 'libgl' 'libxss')
-url='https://www.mendeley.com/download-reference-manager'
-license=('custom')
-
-_file=mendeley-reference-manager-${pkgver}-x86_64.AppImage
-source=(https://static.mendeley.com/bin/desktop/${_file})
-sha256sums=('65e8e95f2ab920b96fa6905f8fe176cc7849ddd2c9c86942607265348482492b')
-
+url="https://www.mendeley.com/download-reference-manager"
+license=('LicenseRef-Mendeley')
+depends=('alsa-lib'
+         'at-spi2-core'
+         'bash'
+         'cairo'
+         'dbus'
+         'expat'
+         'glib2'
+         'glibc'
+         'gtk3'
+         'hicolor-icon-theme'
+         'libcups'
+         'libgcc'
+         'libstdc++'
+         'libx11'
+         'libxcb'
+         'libxcomposite'
+         'libxdamage'
+         'libxext'
+         'libxfixes'
+         'libxkbcommon'
+         'libxrandr'
+         'mesa'
+         'nspr'
+         'nss'
+         'pango'
+         'systemd-libs')
 options=('!strip')
+source=("https://static.mendeley.com/bin/desktop/${pkgname}-${pkgver}-x86_64.AppImage")
+sha256sums=('492bcbd86a6bb6d5b782860fe86e3baa6919c092f95c5d55bf6930877eb6c068')
 
 prepare() {
-  # Extract AppImage contents so we install bypassing every and all AppImage
-  # desktop integration/deployment mechanisms
-  chmod +x "${_file}"
-  "./${_file}" --appimage-extract &>/dev/null
+    chmod +x "${pkgname}-${pkgver}-${CARCH}.AppImage"
+    "./${pkgname}-${pkgver}-${CARCH}.AppImage" --appimage-extract &>/dev/null
+    sed -i "s|Exec=AppRun|Exec=/usr/bin/${pkgname}|g" "squashfs-root/${pkgname}.desktop"
+    rm -r squashfs-root/{usr/lib,"${pkgname}.png"}
+    find squashfs-root -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +
 }
 
 package() {
-  install -d "$pkgdir"/usr/bin/
-  install -d "$pkgdir"/usr/local/mendeley-reference-manager/
-  install -d "$pkgdir"/usr/share/applications/
-  install -d "$pkgdir"/usr/share/icons/
-
-  install -m644 squashfs-root/mendeley-reference-manager.png "$pkgdir"/usr/share/icons/
-
-  sed -i 's%Exec=AppRun%Exec=/usr/bin/mendeley-reference-manager%g' squashfs-root/mendeley-reference-manager.desktop
-  install -m644 squashfs-root/mendeley-reference-manager.desktop "$pkgdir"/usr/share/applications/
-
-  find squashfs-root -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +
-  mv squashfs-root/* "$pkgdir"/usr/local/mendeley-reference-manager/
-  ln -s /usr/local/mendeley-reference-manager/mendeley-reference-manager "$pkgdir"/usr/bin/mendeley-reference-manager
+    mv squashfs-root/usr "${pkgdir}"
+    install -d "${pkgdir}/usr/bin" "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/${pkgname}" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/applications"
+    mv squashfs-root/* "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/${pkgname}"
+    mv "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/${pkgname}/${pkgname}.desktop" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/applications"
+    ln -s "/usr/lib/${pkgname}/${pkgname}" -t "${pkgdir}/usr/bin"
 }
 

Scan history

Scanned at (UTC)	Severity	Rules
2026-11-01 00:21:48	Medium	3
2026-10-31 00:07:41	Medium	3
2026-10-30 00:29:30	Medium	3
2026-10-29 00:13:55	Medium	3
2026-10-28 00:06:54	Medium	3
2026-10-27 00:23:28	Medium	3
2026-10-26 00:12:40	Medium	3
2026-10-25 00:20:48	Medium	3
2026-10-24 00:14:55	Medium	3
2026-10-23 00:02:19	Medium	3
2026-10-22 00:13:10	Medium	3
2026-10-21 00:12:50	Medium	3
2026-10-20 00:10:31	Medium	3
2026-10-19 00:03:55	Medium	3
2026-10-18 00:06:55	Medium	3
2026-10-17 00:21:55	Medium	3
2026-10-16 00:12:47	Medium	3
2026-10-15 17:12:54	Medium	3
2026-10-15 00:28:05	Low	3
2026-10-14 00:06:47	Low	3