this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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I have a few Linux servers at home that I regularly remote into in order to manage, usually logged into KDE Plasma as root. Usually they just have several command line windows and a file manager open (I personally just find it more convenient to use the command line from a remote desktop instead of directly SSH-ing into the system), but if I have an issue, I've just been absentmindedly searching stuff up and trying to find solutions using the preinstalled Firefox instance from within the remote desktop itself, which would also be running as root.

I never even thought to install uBlock Origin on it or anything, but the servers are all configured to use a PiHole instance which blocks the vast majority of ads. However, I do also remember using the browser in my main server to figure out how to set up the PiHole instance in the first place, and that server also happens to be the most important one and is my main NAS.

I never went on any particularly shady websites, but I also don't remember exactly which websites I've been on as root, though I do seem to remember seeing ads during the initial pihole setup, because it didn't go very smoothly and I was searching up error messages trying to get it to work.

This is definitely on me, but it never crossed my mind until recently that it might be a bad idea to use a browser as root, and searching online everyone just states the general cybersecurity doctrine to never do it (which I'm now realizing I shouldn't have) but no one seems to be discussing how risky it actually is. Shouldn't Firefox be sandboxing every website and not allowing anything to access the base system? Between "just stop doing it" and "you have to reinstall the OS right now there's probably already a virus on there," how much danger do you suppose I'm in? I'm mainly worried about the security/privacy of my personal data I have stored on the servers. All my servers run Fedora KDE Spin and have Intel processors if that makes a difference?

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[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes. Running anything as root is potentially dangerous. And a browser is a complex and big piece of software with many security issues that can be (potentially) triggered remotely. So it's bad because of two reasons.

Btw a desktop environment also is a complex and big piece of software with potential issues. Running the whole desktop as root is another thing you wouldn't do for extra security.

The proper way is to just create a user account and run the desktop and browser as a user. Open a terminal and 'su' or 'sudo' to limit root rights to the operations that actually need those permissions.

Just running everything as root certainly works. But you do away with all the extra layers of security and end up with something as secure as MS-DOS or a Windows in the 90s or early 2000s.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago

No if you leave it running and don’t use it.

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world -3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

It should be ok because nothing will run on your system without a permission prompt at least. So they that should ring some bells of system is asking for your password when you didn't try to install anything.

But best practice would be log in as a regular user and use sudo to do any admin tasks.

[–] tslnox@reddthat.com 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Damn, you are so lucky that the downvotes are disabled or you would be downvoted to Oblivion.

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Honestly friend I don't give a rats ass about up or down votes. I'm just here to read, learn and converse. Some things I'll get right, some I'll get wrong. That's life.

I could stop using this tomorrow and it would make zero difference to my life, know what I mean? It's just some site. My real life is something altogether different.

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