Comment by alexvitkov
1 month ago
No, not everything is a trade-off. Some things are just good and some are just bad.
A working permission system would be objectively good. By that I mean one where a program called "image-editor" can only access "~/.config/image-editor", and files that you "File > Open". And if you want to bypass that and give it full permissions, it can be as simple as `$ yolo image-editor` or `# echo /usr/bin/image-editor >> /etc/yololist`.
A permission system that protects /usr/bin and /root, while /home/alex, where all my stuff is is a free-for-all, is bad. I know about chroot and Linux namespaces, and SELinux, and QEMU. None of these are an acceptable way to to day-to-day computing, if you actually want to get work done.
No everything is a trade off. That is a reality of life in general.
Anything that is proposed has a cost associated with it (time, money). That always has to be weighed up against any potential benefit.
That claim is too generic to add anything to this discussion. Ok, everything has a trade off. Thanks for that fortune cookie wisdom. But we’re not discussing CS theory 101. In this case in particular, what is the cost exactly? Is it a cost worth paying?
The cost is that developing that simple script to execute something and accessing files will have to be constructed differently. It will be much more complex.
That or the OS settings for said script will need to be handled. That is time and money.
2 replies →
> That claim is too generic to add anything to this discussion. Ok, everything has a trade off. Thanks for that fortune cookie wisdom.
It isn't fortune cookie wisdom and no it isn't "too generic". It is something that fundamentally wasn't understood by the person I was replying to from their comment. I also don't believe you really understand the concept either.
> But we’re not discussing CS theory 101.
No we are not. We are discussing concepts about security and time / money management.
> In this case in particular, what is the cost exactly? Is it a cost worth paying?
You just accused me of "fortune cookie wisdom" and "being too generic". While asking a question where the answer differs dependant on the person / organisation.
All security is predicated on what you are protected against. So it is unique to your needs. What realistically are your threats. This is known as threat modelling.
e.g. I have a old vehicle. The security on it is a joke. Without additional third party security products, you can literally steal it with a flat blade about two inches long and drive away. You don't even need to hot-wire it. Additionally it is highly desirable by thieves. I can only realistically as a individual without a garage to store it in overnight, protect it from an opportunist. So I have a pedal box, a steering wheel lock, and a secret key switch that turns off the ignition and only I know where it is in the cab. That is like stop an opportunist. However more determined individuals. It will be stolen. Therefore I keep it out of public view when parked overnight. BTW because of the security measures, it takes about a good few minutes to be able to drive anywhere.
Realistically. Operating system security is much better than than it was. It is at the point that many recent large scale hacks in the last few years were initiated via social engineering to bypass the OS security entirely. So I would say it is in the area of diminishing returns already. So the level of threats I face and most people face, it is already sufficient. The rest I can mitigate myself.
Just like my vehicle. If a determined individual wants to get into you computer they are going to do so.
1 reply →
This is getting a lot better with Flatpaks and Wayland (and its "portal" system to access resources).