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Why on earth would I "never log in as root"? And I'm pretty sure it's not a "noob mistake" if I've been using Unix since 1994.
by teach 13y ago
Why on earth would I "never log in as root"? And I'm pretty sure it's not a "noob mistake" if I've been using Unix since 1994.
- NateDad 13y agoBecause then any malware that gets installed by you (or a program you run, like, say, your browser) has root privileges. If you were not logged in as root, anything running as you would not have root privileges and therefore would have much less power to ruin your computer. It's not a controversial statement. It's security 101. Hell, even Windows Vista implemented the same strategy once Microsoft realized logging in with admin rights was a bad idea.
- teach 13y agoI'm logged in as root to a headless server that doesn't even run a GUI. I pretty much only install software from the Ubuntu repository. The server is only used by me. I think it's okay if I log in as root if I want.