4 ms·

Few people do; "don't use root as your primary login" has been standard advice for decades. Do you ever use sudo or equivalent?

by Zak 1y ago

beeflet 1y ago
I've used sudo before, but I find that it is really difficult to type with the safety gloves on because I keep fatfingering the password and locking myself out. My family recently got me a new computer setup that won't require sudo and other practices considered harmful. It even does shapes, colors, and animal sounds, which is good enough for my use case.
- zoky 1y ago
  Oh wow, you got on the Windows 12 Preview somehow?
- Wowfunhappy 1y ago
  ...you're clearly being sarcastic but I don't get the joke.
  - EvanAnderson 1y ago
    I read it as commentary on PCs being turned into these types of things: https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Classic-Farmer-Says/dp/B00IVJK8Y0 https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Classic-Farmer-Says/dp/B...
    - SSLy 1y ago
      Ah, the vCenter Server Appliance web gui!
1231232131231 1y ago
Every person I know who uses a Windows computer uses an account with Administrator privileges on their own computer.
- baby_souffle 1y ago
  I think that's just legacy holdover largely mitigated by some of the user account access control stuff introduced with Vista. Also, administrator isn't the same as root. That would be more like system level access which is not the default level for Windows accounts.
  - zorgmonkey 1y ago
    UAC is not a security boundary, it is instead considered a defense-in-depth feature (aka best effort but bypassable). This is officially documented by Microsoft in multiple places. [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/windows-security-servicing-criteria https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/windows-security-servic... [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/windows-security/disable-user-account-control https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-serve...
- fc417fc802 1y ago
  Administrator on windows has been severely restricted since at least the debut of windows 7 if not earlier.
jimmaswell 1y ago
It feels ontologically wrong to me to constantly beg my own computer for permissions to do things. I always use root on Linux, and my Gentoo machines don't even have a non-root account. (I get great satisfaction from compiling VLC to let me run it as root as well as patching Dolphin and other apps to not complain about it.) On Windows I always use an admin account and disable all UAC prompts. I've managed to have no incidents since I started this policy a decade ago by simply not downloading malware or using 123 as my password on an open SSH port. Go figure.
- smt88 1y ago
  So you don't understand why seatbelts were invented and your evidence that they're unnecessary is that you personally haven't gotten into a car accident. "Not downloading malware" is everyone's default stance, but no one can identify all of it. And that's only a single vector out of many. Security flaws exist in even the best operating systems that make you vulnerable even when doing everything "right" (which you emphatically are not).
  - jimmaswell 1y ago
    I wear seatbelts (but I'm proud of my state for being the only one not to force adults to) because a car crash is much more likely than being victim to a zero-day vulnerability.
  - josephg 1y ago
    My problem with this argument is that my user data is by far the most valuable thing on my computer. Almost nothing that gets protected by “root” really matters much. What I really want is a way to protect all my user data from rogue programs, but I have no way to do that on modern computers. Any program I run with my regular user account can steal or delete all of my data already. When my data is so trivially at risk, who cares if a bad program can also wipe my OS or something? I can reinstall Linux. I can’t get my data back if someone steals it.
    - j0057 1y ago

Few people do; "don't use root as your primary login" has been standard advice for decades. Do you ever use sudo or equivalent?

by Zak 1y ago

Few people do; "don't use root as your primary login" has been standard advice for decades. Do you ever use sudo or equivalent?

beeflet 1y ago

I've used sudo before, but I find that it is really difficult to type with the safety gloves on because I keep fatfingering the password and locking myself out. My family recently got me a new computer setup that won't require sudo and other practices considered harmful. It even does shapes, colors, and animal sounds, which is good enough for my use case.

zoky 1y ago
Oh wow, you got on the Windows 12 Preview somehow?
Wowfunhappy 1y ago
...you're clearly being sarcastic but I don't get the joke.
- EvanAnderson 1y ago
  I read it as commentary on PCs being turned into these types of things: https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Classic-Farmer-Says/dp/B00IVJK8Y0 https://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Classic-Farmer-Says/dp/B...
  - SSLy 1y ago
    Ah, the vCenter Server Appliance web gui!

1231232131231 1y ago

Every person I know who uses a Windows computer uses an account with Administrator privileges on their own computer.

baby_souffle 1y ago
I think that's just legacy holdover largely mitigated by some of the user account access control stuff introduced with Vista. Also, administrator isn't the same as root. That would be more like system level access which is not the default level for Windows accounts.
- zorgmonkey 1y ago
  UAC is not a security boundary, it is instead considered a defense-in-depth feature (aka best effort but bypassable). This is officially documented by Microsoft in multiple places. [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/windows-security-servicing-criteria https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/windows-security-servic... [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/windows-security/disable-user-account-control https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-serve...
fc417fc802 1y ago
Administrator on windows has been severely restricted since at least the debut of windows 7 if not earlier.

jimmaswell 1y ago

It feels ontologically wrong to me to constantly beg my own computer for permissions to do things. I always use root on Linux, and my Gentoo machines don't even have a non-root account. (I get great satisfaction from compiling VLC to let me run it as root as well as patching Dolphin and other apps to not complain about it.) On Windows I always use an admin account and disable all UAC prompts. I've managed to have no incidents since I started this policy a decade ago by simply not downloading malware or using 123 as my password on an open SSH port. Go figure.

smt88 1y ago
So you don't understand why seatbelts were invented and your evidence that they're unnecessary is that you personally haven't gotten into a car accident. "Not downloading malware" is everyone's default stance, but no one can identify all of it. And that's only a single vector out of many. Security flaws exist in even the best operating systems that make you vulnerable even when doing everything "right" (which you emphatically are not).
- jimmaswell 1y ago
  I wear seatbelts (but I'm proud of my state for being the only one not to force adults to) because a car crash is much more likely than being victim to a zero-day vulnerability.
- josephg 1y ago
  My problem with this argument is that my user data is by far the most valuable thing on my computer. Almost nothing that gets protected by “root” really matters much. What I really want is a way to protect all my user data from rogue programs, but I have no way to do that on modern computers. Any program I run with my regular user account can steal or delete all of my data already. When my data is so trivially at risk, who cares if a bad program can also wipe my OS or something? I can reinstall Linux. I can’t get my data back if someone steals it.
  - j0057 1y ago