Cleanliness next to Rootliness

Cleanliness next to Rootliness
Daniel Hanson, 2005-04-27

Linspire's arguments to only run a desktop system as root has everything to do with privilege seperation, privilege escalation, and some design choices made along the way.

Colapse all | Post comment

Amen! 2005-04-27
Anonymous

"Run everything as root, there's no big security issues here" is the biggest load of spit I've heard in a while. Ubuntu operates on a rootless security model, SELinux/grsecurity/RSBAC aim to establish roles so that root processes have limited scope, and Zones are like a chroot()^10. These things exi...

[ more ] [ reply ]

Cleanliness next to Rootliness 2005-04-28
josh

Well said Daniel! I agree with you and would go so far as to say that if Linspire insists on continuing with their current policy of user access that they will go through the same learning process that Microsoft has gone through and learn that separation of privilege is an incredible benefit to sec...

[ more ] [ reply ]

Cleanliness next to Rootliness 2005-04-28
Anonymous

Thanks for finally bringing that up. I wasn't sure if Linspire/Lindows was still continuing with this practice. I think it's sad that a lot of windows users still use their computer as an admin account. If Linspire is trying to get people to switch (which I could care less about, honestly), why w...

[ more ] [ reply ]

Cleanliness next to Rootliness 2005-04-28
SFN

If what I want is an OS that puts no limits on user privileges so that my grandmother can change her wallaper (or anything else about her system), why wouldn't I just have my grandmother use Windows?

Because Linspire is free? It's not.

Because the software to be added to Linspire is free? It o...

[ more ] [ reply ]

Cleanliness next to Rootliness 2005-04-28
Todd Knarr (2 replies)

I think Robertson's own example (of having your user data files wiped) is the best argument against running everything as root. Sure, you've lost all your data. If your account isn't root, though, the system itself is protected, including other accounts and things like your backup and restore softwa...

[ more ] [ reply ]

Cleanliness next to Rootliness 2005-04-28
dph - author

Personally, I think anyone who only worries about the harm that they can see shouldn't be in the security business.

If your biggest problem is someone (maybe you) deleting your data, or you system, you aren't paranoid enough.

The real harm comes when you CAN'T see what is happening. I'm para...

[ more ] [ reply ]

Cleanliness next to Rootliness 2005-05-05
Anonymous

Exactly, the point here is other user's accounts. If someone else does something stupid, then their data is at stake. If someone else does something stupid as root, everyone's data is at stake. ...

[ more ] [ reply ]

"Most important" - oh no... 2005-05-04
Phlebas

"What's the most important thing on your desktop? It's the data."

Not quite. It's true that by breaching your defenses a bad guy will gain access to your data, and that's bad. But there are two sets of data not on your desktop that are equally important:

1. Your data elsewhere. E.g. in the ban...

[ more ] [ reply ]