this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Linux

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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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Do you have any antivirus recomendations for Linux.

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

do not use browsers from flatpak. browsers have their own built in sandbox that is crippled or sometimes fully disabled in order to make flatpaks sandboxing work, which are often less restrictive than the browser's.

flatpak is better than nothing for the average user but most packages completely ignore the sandboxing it is supposed to use and require manual changes on flatseal.

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

Interesting, could you please elaborate?

  1. What exactly is this "built in sandbox", and what does it protect against? How does it compare with Flatpak disallowing access to filesystem?
  2. Could we get a source for the claim of sandbox being crippled? Or more details? Documentation? Build scripts?

I had a look at flatpaks I have installed:

  • Firefox (org.mozilla.firefox): no access to ~

  • Thunderbird (org.mozilla.Thunderbird): no access to ~

  • Element (im.riot.Riot): no access to ~

  • Beyond All Reason (info.beyondallreason.bar) - no access to ~

  • Steam (com.valvesoftware.Steam) - no access to ~, and (best of all) Steam runs a ton of untrusted code in games, which will inherit this restriction.

  • Wolfenstein: Blade of Agony (com.realm667.Wolfenstein_Blade_of_Agony) - no access to ~

  • Chromium (com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium): allows access to ~ by default. It's one click to disable, or I could shop around for another one, like org.chromium.Chromium.

  • OpenTTD (org.openttd.OpenTTD) - allows access to ~

Thus, yeah, some apps neglect to restrrict ~, thankfully it's easy to fix. It's not a disadvantage, though, it's a lack of advantage.