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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Just read Madaidans Insecurities. Do you know how much is still relevant? (www.madaidans-insecurities.github.io)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Basically

Sandboxing is bad, bubblewrap (used in Flatpak) is a really good implementation though. Firefox and other apps are not very well sandboxed though
The kernel is endangered through user namespaces (used in Flatpak and Podman/Docker containers i.e. in Distrobox and Toolbox too)
the root password can be extracted veeery easily, especially when entering it through a terminal. Windows "okay" button might actually be more secure!
X11 is insecure, okay we know that
the kernel is very bloated and everything in there has all the permissions, which is not needed
Kernel bugs are often not fixed quickly or at all
Stable Distros are insecure if only CVE bugs are backported, as many security bugs dont get a CVE

I am currently experimenting with the hardened Kernel and hardened_malloc, I use GrapheneOS since over a year.

On Linux its a bit more difficult though, as Flatpak and Distrobox dont work anymore.

This would mean user namespaces need to be enabled again, which I can't seem to make work with

sudo sysctl -w kernel.unprivileged_users_clone=1

But the file doesnt exist and creating it doesnt work, probably needs to be a karg or something?

I am testing all this using the hardened mod of Ublue (a slight Fedora deviation using its image-based distribution model):

https://github.com/qoijjj/hardened-images

The images are rather opinionated though and have things like Flatpak removed, making them nearly unusable.

Maybe nix is a solution? Would this be a good idea?

Another point, bubblejail is not yet in the Fedora repos, which would be a way to make secure sandboxing accessible. Here is a spec file from rusty-snake.

What do you know about this?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As far as I recall, it never was relevant. It was generally viewed as a rant written by a non-professionnel. Perhaps I am wrong? Sorry if I am wrong?? Don't start reporting me, please.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I remember reading there, when it wasn't on github pages but it's own website, the recommendation to keep your critical dotfiles permissioned to a different user account of yours. I don't think that's bad advice. Yes it is probably not needed if you use the system as a pro sysadmin for server purposes, but for desktop use it's just natural that you'll run a lot more programs in a much less controlled manner.

Of course there were ones that I thought they went overboard, but it has at least a few good pieces, if not more, I don't really remember.