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Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

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Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#21

Makes sense to me, but I'd be much more excited to go back to not having the snap directory shoved in my face.

I’ve heard good things about pop os. Have you tried and liked any of the others? It was a bit unnerving to have my Firefox windows change all of a sudden due to upgrade.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#22

> This change now means that in the future if an attacker were to exploit some previously unknown vulnerability in a given system service that is running as a separate user, they would then not be able to access the data of any other user (both human or system service) on the system. If the attacker can already access arbitrary files on your box, I don't think simple unix permissions will save you

So let's just set everything to 777? /s

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#23

> This change now means that in the future if an attacker were to exploit some previously unknown vulnerability in a given system service that is running as a separate user, they would then not be able to access the data of any other user (both human or system service) on the system. If the attacker can already access arbitrary files on your box, I don't think simple unix permissions will save you

So let's just set everything to 777? /s

All I am saying is that security is like onion layers, and unix permissions are the last layer probably. If the attacker penetrated through all the other layers, chances are that unix permissions will not save you.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#24
post #11
post #7

This is just changing the default permissions on a home directory -not a more complicated encrypted/systemd setup I thought it would be.

Way more background than I expected for such a seemingly minor change.

Even if it's minor, this is an excellent article because it accompanies the change with clear instructions on how to fix suspected issues or to revert the change, in a manner that even a relative layperson on a Linux system could follow.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse than that. There is an opt-out, but you have to scroll down on the full page modal, even though there's no indication that you can scroll . It's not incompetence; it's malice.

I get a scroll bar on the modal on Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Are you sure there isn't something wrong with your browser, or with a plugin you are using?

The modal was perfectly sized to not show the opt out in a mobile browser. Mobile browsers tend not to show scrollbars, instead relying on context clues to indicate there's more content. To me, it seems like the modal was specifically designed to not have any context clues indicating more content, such as by having what seems to be a uniform margin of whitespace visible in the default scroll position. And remember, most traffic is mobile.

It sounds like you're saying it's sized to not show the opt out without scrolling even on desktop, which makes it seem even more like the sizing is completely intentional.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#27
post #7

This is just changing the default permissions on a home directory -not a more complicated encrypted/systemd setup I thought it would be.

I totally thought they were turning on homed with encryption by default, and was _super_ excited. I've been toying with doing that myself and having someone go first would be great.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#28
post #21

Makes sense to me, but I'd be much more excited to go back to not having the snap directory shoved in my face.

I’ve heard good things about pop os. Have you tried and liked any of the others? It was a bit unnerving to have my Firefox windows change all of a sudden due to upgrade.

Pop OS is great. I've used it when I need a laptop to Just Work quickly, and I have a non-technical family member who has been using it for about 2 years now with zero issues.

Re: Private Home Directories for Ubuntu 21.04

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's just set everything to 777? /s

All I am saying is that security is like onion layers, and unix permissions are the last layer probably. If the attacker penetrated through all the other layers, chances are that unix permissions will not save you.

google.com/search?q=defense+in+depth
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