▲ | smokel a day ago | |||||||
Having root access implies that you can do all sorts of things: change files, install new software, new kernel modules, etc. Locking this down makes the attack surface for malicious parties much smaller. Many exploits start in user-space and then obtain root access to install rootkits. Of course you lose freedom, but that is exactly what is needed, because some people just cannot help themselves from exploiting that freedom. Unless someone figures out a way where we can safely share computing power and connections to real-life services (e.g. banking, having an identity, communication in general), I think there is no real alternative. Perhaps having separate internets for various purposes would be an option. Ond where we can socialize anonymously, but not trust each other, and one where it's pretty boring, but where you can safely buy goods using your paycheck. | ||||||||
▲ | beeflet a day ago | parent [-] | |||||||
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/authorization.png >Unless someone figures out a way where we can safely share computing power and connections to real-life services (e.g. banking, having an identity, communication in general), I think there is no real alternative. I think the opposite is true. We don't have adequate sandboxing of userspace on most desktop OSes. If your malware has access to the victim's home directory and can phone home, they've been pwned for all intents and purposes. Root access would matter if userspace programs were well sandboxed. On OSes where this is true like android, you have terrible interoperability of userspace programs and it's impossible to get "real work" done. Not to mention that without root access, you are just relying on the corporation to manage your system for you, which isn't tenable for a democracy. You don't need all of this trusted computing stuff to have secure, private payments. Chaumian ecash and cryptocurrencies have known this for a while. Just use a digital signature scheme instead of relying on open-source information. | ||||||||
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