4 ms·

Why not just run WeChat Linux client?

by techntoke 7y ago

zelphirkalt 7y ago
My guess is: You might want to contain the hazard. Who knows what stuff that client is doing on your machine.
- 6c696e7578 7y ago
  I don't think docker is enough. I would want to put it in a VM of it's own, and just for the sake of it, probably send all traffic out that VM via a VPN.
  - lvturner 7y ago
    Genuinely curious (and not just for you, but other posters in the thread) but would you (do you?) do the same for the WhatsApp desktop app? (assuming you use it)
    - rahuldottech 7y ago
      I don't know, what I will say is: most (tech) folks would (rightly, in my opinion) trust Facebook/WhatsApp more than they would Tencent.
      - lvturner 7y ago
        What does "trust" mean in this context? I expect Tencents government data sharing to be higher, but I also don't expect Facebook's to be zero - I would also say I trust less Facebook's handling of my data and it's exposure to third parties (see ref: Cambridge Analytica) and let's not forget their experiments in changing people's moods by manipulating what they saw on their timeline. Not saying Tencent are free from sin, but it seems to be the breaches of trust that Facebook has performed are more wide reaching...
    - zelphirkalt 7y ago
      Definitely, if I was using WhatsApp.
  - Tenoke 7y ago
    Why would a VM have an advantage over docker here? You think the Windows WeChat client is designed to escape from docker if it ever finds itself inside one while running on linux?
    - Nullabillity 7y ago
      Even if you ignore that Docker is not a good security boundary.. DoChat bypasses a lot of the protections that Docker does apply. In particular: - --privileged basically gives it the same capabilities as root - Forwarding the X socket means that it has full access to your desktop, including keylogging and so on - IPC isolation is disabled, so it has full access to any shared memory exposed on the host (again, with root privileges)
mstaoru 7y ago
AFAIK there is no Wechat Linux client. There used to be "electric-wechat" or something like that, Electron wrapping Web UI, but for 2+ years Tencent has deprecated Web UI, so it does not work.

Why not just run WeChat Linux client?

zelphirkalt 7y ago

My guess is: You might want to contain the hazard. Who knows what stuff that client is doing on your machine.

6c696e7578 7y ago
I don't think docker is enough. I would want to put it in a VM of it's own, and just for the sake of it, probably send all traffic out that VM via a VPN.
- lvturner 7y ago
  Genuinely curious (and not just for you, but other posters in the thread) but would you (do you?) do the same for the WhatsApp desktop app? (assuming you use it)
  - rahuldottech 7y ago
    I don't know, what I will say is: most (tech) folks would (rightly, in my opinion) trust Facebook/WhatsApp more than they would Tencent.
    - lvturner 7y ago
      What does "trust" mean in this context? I expect Tencents government data sharing to be higher, but I also don't expect Facebook's to be zero - I would also say I trust less Facebook's handling of my data and it's exposure to third parties (see ref: Cambridge Analytica) and let's not forget their experiments in changing people's moods by manipulating what they saw on their timeline. Not saying Tencent are free from sin, but it seems to be the breaches of trust that Facebook has performed are more wide reaching...
  - zelphirkalt 7y ago
    Definitely, if I was using WhatsApp.
- Tenoke 7y ago
  Why would a VM have an advantage over docker here? You think the Windows WeChat client is designed to escape from docker if it ever finds itself inside one while running on linux?
  - Nullabillity 7y ago
    Even if you ignore that Docker is not a good security boundary.. DoChat bypasses a lot of the protections that Docker does apply. In particular: - --privileged basically gives it the same capabilities as root - Forwarding the X socket means that it has full access to your desktop, including keylogging and so on - IPC isolation is disabled, so it has full access to any shared memory exposed on the host (again, with root privileges)

mstaoru 7y ago

AFAIK there is no Wechat Linux client. There used to be "electric-wechat" or something like that, Electron wrapping Web UI, but for 2+ years Tencent has deprecated Web UI, so it does not work.