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I have a question about flatpak (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I see that it can be slower because of having all the dependencies included with the flatpak itself instead of relying solely on whats installed on the system. I read that this means it isolates or sandboxes itself from the rest of the system.

Does this not mean that it can't infect the rest of the system even if it had malware?

I have seen people say that it isnt good for security because sometimes they force you to use a specific version of certain dependencies that often times are outdated but I'm wondering why that would matter if it was truly sandboxed and isolated.

Do they mean that installing flatpak itself is a security risk or that also specific flatpaks can be security risks themselves?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There are vulnerabilities found in Flatpak's sandboxing all the time so it's pretty much broken. The opening speed on HDD systems is really really bad too. That's why I only use Flatpak to install software that's not available in my distro's repos. Though I use Arch (btw) so distro packages being old isn't an issue for me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's still better than no sandbox at all, isn't it? And who installs their OS on an HDD in 2024?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's still better than no sandbox at all, isn't it?

I guess so.

And who installs their OS on an HDD in 2024?

Those who earn less than $5k a month (aka 80+% of people in the world).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nearly all of my friends make less than $5k per month, and all of them have SSDs as the boot drive in their computer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yes. 1TB SSDs can be bought new for 50€, 500GB for even less. For some people this is expensive depending in the region (e.g. I also know someone who uses an HDD). But given the price of other pc parts it isn't something to cheap out on (a 1TB/2TB HDD is also 50€).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do you have current proof that there is security problems in the current stable version of Flatpak? Nothings perfect but bubblewrap should be pretty solid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well the sandboxing does help with trustworthy browsers so the websites can't have excessive permissions. But relying on such a broken system isn't a very good idea imo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Sandboxing in the browser is different than the sandboxing done by flatpak.

You really want your browser sandbox to be rock solid as any weakness allows for drive by attacks by websites.

Flatpak uses bubblewrap under the hood so it is just as secure. Flatpak also has a security tracker and when security issues are found they are taken very seriously.