this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Either you're trolling - in which case, sod off back to Reddit - or you have a woeful misunderstanding of how Linux user permissions work.
Please explain how someone might "simply change" someone else's .bashrc without either already having access to that user account, or root access on the whole machine?
Nearly all tools (with flatpak and portals progressing into better directions but probably never finished) have rw permissions everwhere.
The modern OS threat model is not other users, as private users mostly have single user systems. It is malware and software doing nasty things.
On Linux this always worked out somehow, but grabbing your sudo password is not hard, just alias
sudoto a script reading your argument, reading your password, and piping the password to the real sudo. You dont even notice it but that script just got your sudo password.Dont know what Reddit has to do with that
It's not about someone, it's about something. A lot of us aren't (only) using Linux as a server OS, but for desktop too, and desktop usage involves running much more different kinds of software that you simply just can't afford to audit, and at times there are programs that you can't choose to not use, because it's not on you but on someone on whom you depend.
Then it's not even only that. It's not only random shit or a game you got that can edit your bashrc and such, but if let's say there's a critical vulnerability in a complex software you use, like a web browser, an attacker could make use of that to take over your account with the use of a bashrc alias.