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And then you get hooked on it and start using it for real (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

There's always a risk of JavaScript breaking out of the sandbox and crap like that. Browser vendors do their best to protect against things like that but security is often a trade-off for speed and people like fast software, not to mention browsers are huge and complex and they're going to have vulnerabilities. A browser's whole job is to execute remote untrusted code, do you trust it that much to be flawless?

...... I mean, I don't but I use it anyway so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[–] PoolloverNathan 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Linux security noob here but can't you just run the browser in a chroot with everything isolated?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that should work too... but you don't get to see any of your local files...

[–] PoolloverNathan 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Made a Nix library for this. For a simple setup you can just build this (untested) and run the result:

import ./encase.nix {
  name = "firefox";
  rw.home.nathan = /home/nathan/home-for/firefox;
  # other dependencies it might need...
  tmp = /tmp; # fresh tmpfs for this sandbox
  network = true;
  command = pkgs.firefox;
}

It doesn't have user isolation yet, so if it escapes the browser and the chroot (which doesn't have a /proc unless you set proc = /proc;, and runs in a PID namespace either way) your files are still at risk. However, this is still pretty secure, and you can run the script itself as a different user (it creates a new UID namespace so chrooting can be done without root).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean, yeah, sure. But at this point, if that’s really a worry, one should not trust any sandbox. OSes are huge and complex and will have vulnerabilities too. Hell, there could be a xz level backdoor currently in the wild and nobody knows any better lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Right, that's where OP comes in - most malware will be made for Windows, so if you visit such a malicious website, it'll likely be inert under Linux!

.... I'm not saying this is a great reason to use Linux, but there's at least a little bit of merit to it.