Steam Deck 2 Rumors Ignite a New Era for Linux Gaming

Linux Journal
3 months ago
by George Whittaker

The speculation around a successor to the Steam Deck has stirred renewed excitement, not just for a new handheld, but for what it signals in Linux-based gaming. With whispers of next-gen specs, deeper integration of SteamOS, and an evolving handheld PC ecosystem, these rumors are fueling broader hopes that Linux gaming is entering a more mature age. In this article we look at the existing rumors, how they tie into the Linux gaming landscape, why this matters, and what to watch.

What the Rumours Suggest

Although Valve has kept things quiet, multiple credible outlets report about the Steam Deck 2 being in development and potentially arriving well after 2026. Some of the key tid-bits:

  • Editorials note that Valve isn’t planning a mere spec refresh; it wants a “generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life”.

  • A leaked hardware slide pointed to an AMD “Magnus”-class APU built on Zen 6 architecture being tied to next-gen handhelds, including speculation about the Steam Deck 2.

  • One hardware leaker (KeplerL2) cited a possible 2028 launch window for the Steam Deck 2, which would make it roughly 6 years after the original.

  • Valve’s own design leads have publicly stated that a refresh with only 20-30% more performance is “not meaningful enough”, implying they’re waiting for a more substantial upgrade.

In short: while nothing is official yet, there’s strong evidence that Valve is working on the next iteration and wants it to be a noteworthy jump, not just a minor update.

Why This Matters for Linux Gaming

The rumoured arrival of the Steam Deck 2 isn’t just about hardware, it reflects and could accelerate key inflection points for Linux & gaming:

Validation of SteamOS & Linux Gaming

The original Steam Deck, running SteamOS (a Linux-based OS), helped prove that PC gaming doesn’t always require Windows. A well-received successor would further validate Linux as a first-class gaming platform, not a niche alternative but a mainstream choice.

Handheld PC Ecosystem Momentum

Since the first Deck, many Windows-based handhelds have entered the market (such as the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go). Rumours of the Deck 2 keep spotlight on the form factor and raise expectations for Linux-native handhelds. This momentum helps encourage driver, compatibility and OS investments from the broader community.

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George Whittaker

Disaggregated Routing with SONiC and VPP: Lab Demo and Performance Insights – Part Two

Linux.com
3 months ago

In Part One of this series, we examined how the SONiC control plane and the VPP data plane form a cohesive, software-defined routing stack through the Switch Abstraction Interface.  We outlined how SONiC’s Redis-based orchestration and VPP’s user-space packet engine come together to create a high-performance, open router architecture. In this second part, we’ll turn […]

The post Disaggregated Routing with SONiC and VPP: Lab Demo and Performance Insights – Part Two appeared first on Linux.com.

Linux.com Editorial Staff

Kali Linux 2025.3 Lands: Enhanced Wireless Capabilities, Ten New Tools & Infrastructure Refresh

Linux Journal
3 months ago
by George Whittaker Introduction

The popular penetration-testing distribution Kali Linux has dropped its latest quarterly snapshot: version 2025.3. This release continues the tradition of the rolling-release model used by the project, offering users and security professionals a refreshed toolkit, broader hardware support (especially wireless), and infrastructure enhancements under the hood. With this update, the distribution aims to streamline lab setups, bolster wireless hacking capabilities (particularly on Raspberry Pi devices), and integrate modern workflows including automated VMs and LLM-based tooling.

In this article, we’ll walk through the key highlights of Kali Linux 2025.3, how the changes affect users (both old and new), the upgrade path, and what to keep in mind for real-world deployment.

What’s New in Kali Linux 2025.3

This snapshot from the Kali team brings several categories of improvements: tooling, wireless/hardware support, architecture changes, virtualization/image workflows, UI and plugin tweaks. Below is a breakdown of the major updates.

Tooling Additions: Ten Fresh Packages

One of the headline items is the addition of ten new security tools to the Kali repositories. These tools reflect shifts in the field, toward AI-augmented recon, advanced wireless simulation and pivoting, and updated attack surface coverage. Among the additions are:

  • Caido and Caido-cli – a client-server web-security auditing toolkit (graphical client + backend).

  • Detect It Easy (DiE) – a utility for identifying file types, a useful tool in reverse engineering workflows.

  • Gemini CLI – an open-source AI agent that integrates Google’s Gemini (or similar LLM) capabilities into the terminal environment.

  • krbrelayx – a toolkit focused on Kerberos relaying/unconstrained delegation attacks.

  • ligolo-mp – a multiplayer pivoting solution for network-lateral movement.

  • llm-tools-nmap – allows large-language-model workflows to drive Nmap scans (automated/discovery).

  • mcp-kali-server – configuration tooling to connect an AI agent to Kali infrastructure.

  • patchleaks – a tool that detects security-fix patches and provides detailed descriptions (useful both for defenders and auditors).

  • vwifi-dkms – enables creation of “dummy” Wi-Fi networks (virtual wireless interfaces) for advanced wireless testing and hacking exercises.

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George Whittaker

VMScape: Cracking VM-Host Isolation in the Speculative Execution Age & How Linux Patches Respond

Linux Journal
3 months 1 week ago
by George Whittaker Introduction

In the world of modern CPUs, speculative execution, where a processor guesses ahead on branches and executes instructions before the actual code path is confirmed, has long been recognized as a performance booster. However, it has also given rise to a class of vulnerabilities collectively known as “Spectre” attacks, where microarchitectural side states (such as the branch target buffer, caches, or predictor state) are mis-exploited to leak sensitive data.

Now, a new attack variant, dubbed VMScape, exposes a previously under-appreciated weakness: the isolation between a guest virtual machine and its host (or hypervisor) in the branch predictor domain. In simpler terms: a malicious VM can influence the CPU’s branch predictor in such a way that when control returns to the host, secrets in the host or hypervisor can be exposed. This has major implications for cloud security, virtualization environments, and kernel/hypervisor protections.

In this article we’ll walk through how VMScape works, the CPUs and environments it affects, how the Linux kernel and hypervisors are mitigating it, and what users, cloud operators and admins should know (and do).

What VMScape Is & Why It Matters The Basics of Speculative Side-Channels

Speculative execution vulnerabilities like Spectre exploit the gap between architectural state (what the software sees as completed instructions) and microarchitectural state (what the CPU has done internally, such as cache loads, branch predictor updates, etc). Even when speculative paths are rolled back architecturally, side-effects in the microarchitecture can remain and be probed by attackers.

One of the original variants, Spectre-BTI (Branch Target Injection, also called Spectre v2) leveraged the Branch Target Buffer (BTB) / predictor to redirect speculative execution along attacker-controlled paths. Over time, hardware and software mitigations (IBRS, eIBRS, IBPB, STIBP) have been introduced. But VMScape shows that when virtualization enters the picture, the isolation assumptions break down.

VMScape: Guest to Host via Branch Predictor

VMScape (tracked as CVE‑2025‑40300) is described by researchers from ETH Zürich as “the first Spectre-based end-to-end exploit in which a malicious guest VM can leak arbitrary sensitive information from the host domain/hypervisor, without requiring host code modifications and in default configuration.”

Here are the key elements making VMScape significant:

  • The attack is cross-virtualization: a guest VM influences the host’s branch predictor state (not just within the guest).

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George Whittaker