The State of traur

General system Applications
1

Many of us have been using traur especially since the attacks. However after seeing a few discussions of its “Abandonment” I wonder if its worth keeping now. I’m assuming archcanary made by @made-lief is a better replacement for the scanning of already installed packages? I had originally thought the project was just completed but after hearing the author has abandoned it that sheds a new light on the reliability of the program. I guess I could do a poll but I am not really interested in doing that.

2

I posted in the “Issues” section of the TRAUR GitHub. We’ll see if it gets a reply.

3

Going to post this here

I believe this will answer the question If I should keep it or not for Myself and I believe at this point I will just remove it and replace it with archcanary

4

Seems the time has come…

╭─ ~ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10:05:05 AM 
╰─❯ yay -Rns traur
[sudo] password for wombat: 
checking dependencies...

Package (1)  Old Version  Net Change

traur        0.4.1-1      -11.72 MiB

Total Removed Size:  11.72 MiB

:: Do you want to remove these packages? [Y/n] 
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) removing traur                                                                    [--------------------------------------------------] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...

╭─ ~ ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5s  10:05:23 AM 
╰─❯
5

I analysed the traur project and could find 4 more packages Archcanary did’t have.

$ archcanary --refresh

============================================================
 Archcanary v0.1.24
 Scanned: 2026-08-04 17:43

 Lists loaded
   package_list.txt  infostealer + eBPF rootkit  1936 pkgs
   + CHAOS RAT         7 pkgs
   + Russian Spam     75 pkgs
   + Community Reports 92 pkgs (+4)
   + aur-audit black 101 pkgs
   + aur-audit red   297 pkgs

 Packages checked: 2508
============================================================
  • google-chrome-stable
  • chrome
  • google-chrome-bin
  • ttf-mac-fonts-all
6

I did not find traur package, but traur is installed. How do I safely uninstall it with the use of yay/pacman?

7

see a few responses above

if you installed the -bin version then make the appropriate changes

8

Ah, it was the traur-bin. It has been removed from my eos

9

I like the tool, I kept it installed.

Abandoned = no malware-y updates to worry about, right? App is frozen in time until someone makes another one that serves it verbose purpose.

Beside, we can’t be the only ones who loved the app, can we? Someone will step up.

BUT-If the new maintainer created a Github acct the day before he/she takes the app over then it’s -Rns time for me

10

It’s being abandoned isn’t the final straw that triggered me to remove it. It was a few other factors. 1 Since it will now appear to be harder to inject malware people will come up with new ways thus making the checks of this possibly unusable. 2. With the security issues going on with the AUR I think when a project is Abandoned it’s best to maybe find an alternative. There is no gurantee someone wont come take this over do fine for a while then push their malicious code onto unsuspecting systems. 3 as pointed out it really does it’s checks post install so your already infected when it detects it. 4. I rather support someone who supports the community. archcanary is made by a member of the community and I think it will be more accurate and more mantained then traur

11

2 and 3 are my biggest fears about keeping it.

As for 4, I use that tool everyday as well. It’s only getting better.