lotion-rs a lightweight Notion desktop client for Linux (Rust + Tauri) and starting building defenses against Notion C2 vectors

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a project I've been working on that tackles two different problems with Notion right now: performance on Linux and security.

First, I built a custom desktop client for Linux using Rust and Tauri called Lotion-RS. The existing Electron wrappers are way too heavy and bloated, so I wanted something memory-safe and actually lightweight.

You can check out my client repository here:

https://github.com/diegoakanotoperator/lotion-rs

Second, the security aspect: There's a growing trend of threat actors abusing legitimate services like Notion as Command and Control (C2) infrastructure. A perfect example of this is a C2 Proof of Concept developed by the author of this repository: https://github.com/0xbbuddha/notion

(To be clear, I am not the author of that C2, I am just analyzing the technique).

Since I was already building a custom desktop client from the ground up, I decided to use Lotion-RS as a foundation to start building detection mechanisms and defenses against these specific C2 vectors natively. It’s an ongoing effort to see how we can mitigate this kind of API abuse from the client side.

This approach of building security into the architecture from day one aligns with a broader philosophy I've been documenting. If you're interested in the Blue Team/architecture mindset, I recently published a manifesto about it here:

https://github.com/SecByDesignCollective/Manifesto

I also wanted to use this release to clean up and organize some of my older, fragmented thoughts on this topic, which I originally dumped in this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/s/h7MxDjCsOs

Let me know what you think. I'd love to connect with other Linux users who want a lighter client, or anyone from the security side interested in defending against SaaS C2 abuse.