Gentoo Developer: Is The Linux Desktop Less Secure Than Windows 10?

[wdb974]

I also wouldn't count on Windows ASLR:

https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/...y-august-2015/

Thanks for showing us another side of the story! Talk about supporting something just for bragging rights...

[lvlark]

Hardened kernel like linux-grsecurity is a must to make the desktop possible to be as secure as possible. Then comes all the MAC stuff.

This (or rather, the Arch Wiki pages about grsecurity and security in general) has given me alot to think about - in all fairness I probably won't properly look into this until this summer, when I'll be building my next machine.

[defaultUser]

Now I got curious if the chromebooks have some sort of tracker/baloo. The sad thing is since these applications does not are used on datacenters there little to no interest to make them safer

[rip_her_apart]

The OS is just one layer of security.

[Ronshere]

Scary stuff, I'm switching back to Win 10 now!
Seriously, though, Those are pretty serious exploits and it's good they are being addressed.

[GreatEmerald]

Another crap from the Gnome camp. KDE defaulted to xine as far as I remember. There's also Phonon VLC backend, but it seems gstreamer is default now.

No, last I checked VLC was the default backend since Plasma 5.

[Danny3]

I could never believe that Linux desktop is secure or more secure than Windows.
The major thing that protects Linux desktop is it's marketshare.
The only software that I think is secure is Virtualbox (not the program itself but the OS and programs that runs inside it).
I trust Virtualbox because I can run whatever I want inside a virtual machine and I'm not afraid that it will affect my host OS.

I don't understand why no Linux distribution gives me the power to control the program I run on it
Every time a program asks for my root password I fear that it will break my system completely, maybe it wants to format all my hard drives and I lose all my personal files.
Why the fuck the OS doesn't say why the program requires root access is beyond me.
Yes, yes, everyone says to install only open source programs, but I don't need only open source programs.
There's no protection for proprietary programs.
I don't understand why Linux doesn't tell why the fuck a program wants my root access?
When it comes to privacy, I can't control which programs are allowed access devices like Webcam and mike, DVD drive, pendrive, etc...
Everything is allowed by default.
How is that secure

[juno]

I could never believe that Linux desktop is secure or more secure than Windows.
The major thing that protects Linux desktop is it's marketshare.

That humbug has been told for too long.

And wtf are you talking about? Ask the developer of program x why he wants root access. It's your own fault and noone else's if you grant it to any app. It's not in the scope of the kernel to decide what's better for you.

You have all the freedom to restrict anything you want. Or - if you believe it or not - don't run untrusted code.
But of course you can leave those freedoms aside and use freedom of speech to spread humbug. It's up to you.

[orome]

I could never believe that Linux desktop is secure or more secure than Windows.
The major thing that protects Linux desktop is it's marketshare.
The only software that I think is secure is Virtualbox (not the program itself but the OS and programs that runs inside it).
I trust Virtualbox because I can run whatever I want inside a virtual machine and I'm not afraid that it will affect my host OS.

That's delusional, VM escape bugs and malware exist. for virtualbox look for cve-2014-0983.

I don't understand why no Linux distribution gives me the power to control the program I run on it
Every time a program asks for my root password I fear that it will break my system completely, maybe it wants to format all my hard drives and I lose all my personal files.

you don't need root access to loose all personal files. root privileges are required for changes that affect other users not just yourself.

Why the fuck the OS doesn't say why the program requires root access is beyond me.
Yes, yes, everyone says to install only open source programs, but I don't need only open source programs.
There's no protection for proprietary programs.
I don't understand why Linux doesn't tell why the fuck a program wants my root access?

because the program does not tell it. If a program asks for root access, it does so before getting EPERM.
speaking of virtualbox. guest module installer still runs gcc and compiles modules using root privileges. Linux kernel used to have a "feature" that would erase your hard drive if you tried compiling it with UID==0

you can use use polkit policies that restrict specific actions (like mounting a USB stick), in which case the policy is displayed in the password request form.

When it comes to privacy, I can't control which programs are allowed access devices like Webcam and mike, DVD drive, pendrive, etc...
Everything is allowed by default.

not really. device access goes through polkit rules. you can change polkit rules.

most distros configure them to allow access for everything that seat user does (the user logged in locally).
that's also the point of the article. distros run dangerous crap by default.

[wizard69]

This paragraph is quite hard to read... Apart from the fact that I wouldn't know the details of the automatic indexing and the mentioned parser code. 'that there isn't this behavior on Windows by default', does that mean that Windows' parser code is better? Or that Windows' parser code also doesn't behave properly, but at least the effects on Windows are mitigated by anti-virus software?

All in all though - more relevant to me would be 'what to do to better secure my Linux desktop'.

I look at ti this way, people need to support reports like this as they are the only way to bring to light the weak areas in Linux. Frankly there are many issues with Linux that should be addressed but astroturfing this little article goes on to explain one big issue is the distro's. Some solutions are out there but getting the various releases of Linux to incorporate them is a problem. In a nut shell people need to be more proactive when selecting a distro to make sure that they take security seriously.