Bash may need a high level of authority as it's spawning processes and wiring them together, but those processes don't necessarily need to have as much access a

Bash may need a high level of authority as it's spawning processes and wiring them together, but those processes don't necessarily need to have as much access as you do themselves. Take the venerable `cowsay` for example. Currently, running `cowsay` (as with any other program) can cryptolocker your hard drive, delete all your files, reach out to arbitrary servers on the internet, etc. But how much access to your system does it actually need to do its job? Well, mostly... STDIN, and STDOUT, really. Yes, actually doing this is complicated. Another reply has linked to some broad info about object-capability security, but here's a good introduction to the subject: http://habitatchronicles.com/2017/05/what-are-capabilities/ http://habitatchronicles.com/2017/05/what-are-capabilities/ ...and this paper is an excellent deep dive into a capability system: https://mumble.net/~jar/pubs/secureos/secureos.html https://mumble.net/~jar/pubs/secureos/secureos.html