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Indeed, that's the approach I use to run multiple copies of Thunderbird. Using a separate account does add protection against browser exploits though (if visiti
by hazeii 9y ago
Indeed, that's the approach I use to run multiple copies of Thunderbird. Using a separate account does add protection against browser exploits though (if visiting an interesting-but-risky site, the 'guest' account approach prevents access to the main account - at least as long as a browser exploit doesn't then lead to a privilege escalation).
- tinus_hn 9y agoAlthough exploitation is more difficult, all programs that run in an X session have complete access to all the other programs in it, regardless of user ids or for that matter the host the program is running on.
- mikedelfino 9y agoYou can use xauth to get an Xauthority cookie for untrusted clients, so they can't meddle with other X clients. The biggest downside is that you lose access to the X clipboard - which is also good, so its data doesn't get compromised.
- tinus_hn 9y agoI did not know that. Turns out it’s a bit weak though, all untrusted clients have full access to all other untrusted clients. So you only have two levels. Still, better than nothing.
- hazeii 9y agoAs a simple demo of this, running 'gimp' as a 'guest' user allows you to take screenshots of windows owned by the user who started the session. Thus, a compromised copy of firefox on the 'guest' account could, for example, easily capture the contents of any window on the system. Still, the main reason I run the browser as a different user is to isolate it for privacy; there are some security benefits too, but I agree it's not something that would defeat a targetted attack.