It was recently announced release of the new version of the popular Linux distribution, "Tails 5.4" (The Amnesic Incognito Live System), version in which some security adjustments were made to the Kernel, some updates are included and more.
For those who are new to Tails, you should know that this is a distribution that is based on the Debian package base y designed to provide anonymous access to the network, in order to preserve the privacy and anonymity of the user on the network.
Anonymous output from Tails is provided by Tor In all connections, since the traffic through the Tor network, they are blocked by default with a packet filter, with which the user does not leave a trace on the network unless they want otherwise. Encryption is used to store user data in save user data mode between startups, in addition to presenting a series of preconfigured applications designed for the security and anonymity of the user, such as a web browser, the mail client, an instant message client among others.
Main new features of Tails 5.4
In this new version of the system that is presented, changes have been made to strengthen kernel protection, because the randomization mode of the list of free memory pages is enabled (page_alloc.shuffle=1), as well as the automatic loading of the TTY line disabled (dev.tty.ldisc_autoload =0).
Other changes made in this new version of Tails 5.4, is that slub_debug=P and page_poison=1 settings have been disabled in favor of a more efficient init_on_free=1 allocated memory cleanup mode.
Besides that, HTTPS only mode is disabled in Unsafe Browser, which is used to access resources on the local network, as forcing forwarding to HTTPS made it difficult to connect to some wireless networks that use HTTP to access the captive portal.
We can also find the updated versions of Tor Browser 11.5.2 (version not officially announced yet) but builds on Firefox 91.5.0 esr and includes bug fixes and stability improvements. Also, the browser landing page reverts to the usual Tor Browser look and feel.
On the other hand, we can also find that Tor 0.4.7.10 is included that updates the geoip cache that is generated from the IPFire database location and which uses the version of August 9, 2022, since using a more current version generates some problems. Versions after August 10 did not have the proper ARIN network mappings.
As for the heart of the system, this new version of Tails 5.4 introduces the Linux kernel 5.10.13, an LTS kernel release featuring performance support for AMD Zen 3 along with other Linux performance additions, AMD Zen 3 EDAC support, mremap performance improvements on ARM64 hardware, AMD temperature sensor support Zen 3, initial NVIDIA Orin support, as well as initial RISC-V boot via EFI, Raspberry Pi VC4 support, and more.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it of this new version of Tails, you can check the details In the following link.
Download Tails 5.4
Si you want to try or install this new version of this Linux distribution on your computer, You can obtain the image of the system which is already available from its official website in its download section, link is this.
The image obtained from the download section is a 1 GB ISO image capable of working in live mode.
How to update to the new version of Tails 5.4?
For those users who have a previous version of Tails installed and want to upgrade to this new version, can do directly following the instructions in this link.
For this they can make use of their USB device that they used to install Tails, they can consult the information to carry this movement on their computer In the following link.