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0 pointsmicrotonal9y ago0 comments

Running Arch Linux means I do not need to worry about malware. Ransomware. Crap like that.

I didn't downvote you and understand your concern. However, keep in mind that X11 has no GUI isolation. So, an attacker could snoop all your keyboard and mouse events, make screengrabs, etc. through a compromised web browser.

Wayland provides GUI isolation, but is not widely deployed yet. Most X11 users are only safe because the X11 desktop is not a large target group, but it is probably less secure than Windows, which does GUI isolation between processes of different privilege levels, sandboxing for Store apps, etc.

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beagle39y ago

That's true, but it only matters once the attacker manages to run code - which is significantly harder to achieve on Linux, due to diversity (opposite of win monoculture) and mostly sane defaults (no local directory in executable or dll search directory; file name not enough for execute permission).

Buffer overflows and targeted attacks are comparable in ease, but if you are not targeted, you are way safer on Linux.

Accacin9y ago

So there's a chance someone could snoop on me using X11, but there's a 100% chance of it on Windows because of all the data they're collecting in the background (including being able to get a copy of a file that triggered a crash).

I'll take Linux, thanks.