I’m the Never Ending Pie Throwing Robot, aka NEPTR.

Linux enthusiast, programmer, and privacy advocate. I’m nearly done with an IT Security degree.

TL;DR I am a nerd.

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Joined 1 month ago
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Cake day: November 20th, 2024

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  • The weakest link of any secured system is the user. I know that will never change, especially as computers/software become more complicated over time. But I don’t understand why many people argue that “since the user is the weakest link, we don’t need more secure systems, we need better users.” We need both.

    Explaination

    For anyone who suggests that a user can “just be smarter and not install malware” think about this: do you check read all the commits to the software you install, for each update, and then compile from source. The answers is no. And I don’t think we should need to.

    Linux is not secure, it is still meant for tinkerers and by design is very open. This is one of my favorite aspects of Linux, just how open it is. The result though is an insecure system with many attack vectors that are hard to protect against.

    For example, I recently wanted to patch a game for mod support. This required me to run a script that i didnt fully understand. I did my best to read it and nothing looked suspicious, but I couldn’t fully understand because I am not a modder for that game.

    This script could have done a number of things:

    • Added a fake sudo script to the path in the user’s home resulting in privilege escalation.
    • Created a user Systemd service that logs everything added to the clipboard or keylog, since that is also possible on Wayland with an LD_PRELOAD attack.
    • Create a Systemd service that records the screen to grab passwords.
    • Edit the user’s .bashrc file.
    • Delete/encrypt every file owned by the user.
    • Read and exfiltrate all app data from the $HOME
    • Or a combination of multiple other things.

    The solution is sandboxing, permission system, secure defaults, and transparency to the user. And of course a way to disable security checks for tinkerers.

    My point is that the perfect user does not exist. We (inevitably) use our computers to do all sorts of niche things, the perfect user does not even turn their PC on.




  • N.E.P.T.R@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoLinux@lemmy.mlDo you use Gnome or KDE Plasma?
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    17 days ago

    I would agree but it still heavily relies/requires X11 for many of the core components and apps. Wayland support on the horizon. For now though I wouldn’t recommend anyone use any DE that doesnt support Wayland, since X.Org is has been unmaintained for many years, it is a bloated protocol, and is insecure by design. This is because it was designed 40+ years ago in a time before security was a big concern to developers.



  • N.E.P.T.R@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoLinux@lemmy.mlWhat are the problems with Ubuntu?
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    18 days ago

    Canonical, the owners of Ubuntu, love to steal open source projects. They’ll help a project with development power, then force the contributors to sign a CLA (for an example see the fork of LXD called Incus). Canonical also uses and forces proprietary systems onto the user’s, e.g. Snap uses the proprietary and hardcoded Canonical repository, which Ubuntu now defaults to using Snap for installing packages.

    Side note, if it wasnt for Snap using a proprietary backend and also depending on AppArmor (generally regarded as a weaker MAC than SELinux), I would prefer Snap over Flatpak. It creates a better sandbox (aka the actually Security of the software), avoids sandbox escapes, blacklists against broad permissions (e.g. $HOME access), and Snap packages generally have stricter permissions (which determines the real-world security of Snap). Sandboxing is very important for Desktop (and server) security. Android is does the best job of this, but it would be nice if projects like Sydbox, Crablock, or Bubblejail were adopted and built-in to the package manager.

    But even without any of the previously mentioned problems, I just think Fedora is a better OS. Fedora comes preconfigured with SELinux policies to confine system services they are quicker to adopt new technologies. Fedora is also a semi-rolling distro, meaning packages are quicker to get updated than on Ubuntu. Fedora stays FOSS, where as Ubuntu becomes more locked down. Also, the package Brace made by the developer of DivestOS is great for quickly hardening a Fedora system.





  • Some made a pull request with all the changes made already. The issue that the PR addressed was the excessive use of he/him in the docs when referring to developers (aka the person reading the docs). Contributors expressed that they didnt think using male only pronouns in the docs made much sense when referring to any developer reading the docs. This wasn’t some entitled person trying to force the ladybird dev to rewrite the docs, all they needed to do was merge the changes.




  • N.E.P.T.R@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoLinux@lemmy.worldNyxt - lisp browser
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    1 month ago

    In addition, on that website under “Manual>Troubleshooting”, the manual states the following:

    Bwrap error on initialization (Ubuntu)

    If Nyxt crashes on start due to bwrap, then disable or configure the apparmor service.

    This vague wording is terrible advice. Disabling AppArmor outright destroys Snap sandboxing and the general security of your operating system. Configuring AppArmor is a better option, but a specific should be given as an example.

    For example, from the readme file on Cromite’s Github repo:

    “”" 1. Creating an apparmor profile for cromite

    Create /etc/apparmor.d/chrome, and write:

    abi <abi/4.0>,
    include <tunables/global>
    profile cromite /home/user/cromite/chrome-lin/chrome flags=(unconfined) {
    userns,
    include if exists <local/chrome>
    }

    replacing the cromite binary path with where you have placed cromite.

    Now, run sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/cromite to apply the changes.

    2. Disabling the restriction until next reboot

    sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0

    3. Disabling the restriction permanently

    Add kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0 to the file /etc/sysctl.d 60-apparmor-namespace.conf. Create the file if not exists. “”"

    EDIT: I hate trying to get Lemmy to format multiline code blocks.


  • Currently only supports WebKit and Blink (experimental) as underlying browser renderers. The description of the browser starting with the words “Nyxt is a browser with deeply integrated AI […]” is a turn-off for me. If it is for powerusers, call it what it is. It could be a LLM or some algorithm, idk.

    I may check it in a year. For now, for Blink (Chromium) engine use Cromite browser + uBlock Origin Lite, for Gecko (Firefox) use Librewolf or Mullvad browsers.

    The browser app is the only program where (to me) Security/Privacy fully supersedes any concerns customizability and usability.