I used to run their closed cli client years ago, but only when connecting to grab wireguard configs, then I closed it and connected with that config without it, which worked well*.

I also remember strace showing it reading a bunch of stuff including /etc/os-release. So they at least knew what distro you were using 😉

It was okay for me because I knew how to deal with it, although I’m with a provider that provides configs directly so you don’t need to use any service-specific clients.

Nord was never, or should have never been, a “privacy” choice, unless you are the kind of person that falls for paid reviewers and comparison sites, or marketing bullshit like all the X eyes talk.

*you can do that with any client that connects through wireguard since you can run wg showconf on the connected wireguard device. Although you would have to do some scripting yourself to replicate other steps like DNS and routing. I don’t think I was the only one doing this.

A long time ago, there was this misconception that “linux” was terminal-only. You know, like the interface sysadmins and Hollywood hackers use.

A small long-defunct non-tech forum I used to be a member of had a tech sub-forum, and in that sub-forum there was a new post one day introducing “linux” and covering some basics. It was full of DE screenshots (GNOME 2 and KDE 3) specifically to dispel the “terminal-only” misconception.

That was almost ~20 years ago. And the rest is history. I never liked Windows or M$ anyway for both technical and non-technical reasons. So it wasn’t that hard to convince me.

I almost exclusively use the terminal for everything except web browsing now, and don’t use a DE. So you could say that I myself ironically became a perpetuator of the misconception 😉

This is such a excellent unexpected original comeback, I will give you a chance to do another one.

How to extract the content of a flatpak

Which is something you presumably want to do because you don’t want to use flatpak/ostree.

The first step of course, is to install ostree. 🤨

Then, via this very official method:

ostree init --repo=repo --mode=bare-user
ostree static-delta apply-offline --repo=repo some.flatpak
ostree checkout --repo=repo -U $(basename $(echo repo/objects/*/*.commit | cut -d/ -f3- --output-delimiter= ) .commit) outdir

This official solution looks very reliable.

The impenetrable building blocks

Searching vulnerability databases will obviously prove futile. Like the below sample entries (search limited to CVSS>=9.0 and Age<90d)

[CVE-2025-7458] Critical - SQLite - Integer Overflow
  ↳ Priority: MEDIUM | No exploits | Vuln Age: 15d (RECENT)
  ↳ CVSS: 9.1 | EPSS: 0.0003 | KEV: ✘
  ↳ Exposure: 12 | Vendors: sqlite | Products: sqlite
  ↳ Patch: ✔ | POCs: ✘ | Nuclei Template: ✘ | HackerOne: ✘
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  
[CVE-2025-6965] Critical - SQLite - Buffer Overflow
  ↳ Priority: HIGH | EXPLOITS AVAILABLE | Vuln Age: 29d (RECENT)
  ↳ CVSS: 9.8 | EPSS: 0.0005 | KEV: ✘
  ↳ Exposure: 13 | Vendors: sqlite | Products: sqlite
  ↳ Patch: ✔ | POCs: 1 | Nuclei Template: ✘ | HackerOne: ✘
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  
[CVE-2025-49796] Critical - libxml2 - Denial of Service
  ↳ Priority: MEDIUM | No exploits | Vuln Age: 57d
  ↳ CVSS: 9.1 | EPSS: 0.0013 | KEV: ✘
  ↳ Patch: ✘ | POCs: ✘ | Nuclei Template: ✘ | HackerOne: ✘
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[CVE-2025-49794] Critical - libxml2 - Use After Free
  ↳ Priority: MEDIUM | No exploits | Vuln Age: 57d
  ↳ CVSS: 9.1 | EPSS: 0.0013 | KEV: ✘
  ↳ Patch: ✘ | POCs: ✘ | Nuclei Template: ✘ | HackerOne: ✘
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[CVE-2025-4517] Critical - Python tarfile - Path Traversal
  ↳ Priority: MEDIUM | No exploits | Vuln Age: 71d
  ↳ CVSS: 9.4 | EPSS: 0.0015 | KEV: ✘
  ↳ Patch: ✘ | POCs: ✘ | Nuclei Template: ✘ | HackerOne: ✘

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

libxml2 and sqlite are in the dependency tree of ostree itself of course. But really, nothing to see here.

Just the common “hate” talking points.

Because it’s more inconvenience than help for users who are average or above, and have no interest in using that technology.

If app developers start distributing binaries as flatpaks exclusively (examples of this already exist), then just extracting those binary packages alone is a chore (involving obscure(ish) steps starting with creating an empty ostree). It’s the kind of knowledge that is so useless you immediately erase it from your memory, which is what I did.

Also, one look at the dependency tree of flatpak, or even just ostree, and you quickly realize how much of a joke the “security” claims are with all that attack surface (think the xz in systemd drama and multiply it by a 100).

Can Flatpak itself be sunset with some bullying?