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I always thought part of the point of open source is that the code is auditable so you can see if anyone does anything nasty. That obviously doesn't mean you ca

I always thought part of the point of open source is that the code is auditable so you can see if anyone does anything nasty. That obviously doesn't mean you can grok the code of all that you use but at least the community may in theory be able to. If you're installing software you don't trust, then in my opinion you've already lost most of the battle. That said, I would think mandatory access control via SELinux could do a lot of what you're suggesting, though I've only ever really tangled with it on servers, not consumer/desktop type computing. I think in that sense, Linux actually got a lot of security features before Apple/Microsoft.

themerone 3y ago
It's not the point of open source, but it is an argument in favor. It's also been pretty thoroughly debunked. Vulnerabilities rates are comparable between open source and proprietary software. Very little open source code is carefully audited, and the availability of source code also benefits bad actors. I'm a huge proponent of open source, but security just isn't a strong argument.
porcoda 3y ago
> I always thought part of the point of open source is that the code is auditable Yes, it's theoretically true but doesn't actually occur in practice - largely because open source rarely sits still long enough for people to actually have the capacity to audit. From my vantage point, that capacity is consumed by addressing known bugs and issues, and the never ending feature adding and adaptation to changing whims of the developer community. For example, the most recent high profile event w/ xz wasn't due to an audit but a lucky event of someone noticing something weird that caused an audit AFTER the weirdness was noticed. Had nobody noticed the weirdness, it's not likely any auditing would have occurred to notice it. There is certainly a benefit to open source from transparency that allows such scrutiny when something weird happens. Had that code been closed source, it's very likely nobody would have been able to figure out what was going on nearly as fast.
aborsy 3y ago
The technology is there, but Linux desktop lags behind in making use of it. ChromeOS and android take something like Gentoo Linux, enforce SeLinux and sandbox the applications. In Linux, there is SeLinux and AppArmor but few apps have profiles and properly contained by default.

themerone 3y ago

It's not the point of open source, but it is an argument in favor. It's also been pretty thoroughly debunked. Vulnerabilities rates are comparable between open source and proprietary software. Very little open source code is carefully audited, and the availability of source code also benefits bad actors. I'm a huge proponent of open source, but security just isn't a strong argument.

porcoda 3y ago

> I always thought part of the point of open source is that the code is auditable Yes, it's theoretically true but doesn't actually occur in practice - largely because open source rarely sits still long enough for people to actually have the capacity to audit. From my vantage point, that capacity is consumed by addressing known bugs and issues, and the never ending feature adding and adaptation to changing whims of the developer community. For example, the most recent high profile event w/ xz wasn't due to an audit but a lucky event of someone noticing something weird that caused an audit AFTER the weirdness was noticed. Had nobody noticed the weirdness, it's not likely any auditing would have occurred to notice it. There is certainly a benefit to open source from transparency that allows such scrutiny when something weird happens. Had that code been closed source, it's very likely nobody would have been able to figure out what was going on nearly as fast.

aborsy 3y ago

The technology is there, but Linux desktop lags behind in making use of it. ChromeOS and android take something like Gentoo Linux, enforce SeLinux and sandbox the applications. In Linux, there is SeLinux and AppArmor but few apps have profiles and properly contained by default.