Re: major changes if gnu/linux dominates the desktop and/or mobile market?

[Michael Ellerman <mpe () ellerman id au>]

Solar Designer <solar () openwall com> writes:
> Hi all,
>
> As a moderator I approved all messages in this thread so far, but I am
> unhappy about the quality of both Georgi's message and the replies.
>
> This is a valid topic, but there's no room in it for trolling (that's
> how Georgi's message came across, even if maybe unintentionally) nor for
> responding only about the presumed trolling.  Just assume good faith and
> post a response that's actually useful to others in here.  I'll try:
>
> On Mon, Oct 05, 2020 at 03:02:33PM +0300, Georgi Guninski wrote:
> > Are there major security changes needed if
> > gnu/linux dominates the desktop and/or mobile phone
> > markets?
>
> I'd say yes, major security changes are needed.

Agree.

> On the desktop, major Linux distributions (and by the way *BSDs and
> Solaris are not very different in this respect, I think) when used as
> single-user desktop systems lack security isolation between applications
> of the user.

You can get some isolation fairly easily using firejail.

It's not as secure as eg. Qubes, but it's available in most distros and
can be as simple as sticking "firejail" in front of a command.

You can use it to isolate your browser/irc/mail client, or possibly more
importantly your build environment, from your wider home directory.

As usual the arch wiki has good doco:

  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/firejail#Usage

cheers