29 May
2024
29 May
'24
7:44 a.m.
On Wednesday 29 May 2024 00:12:38 Dr. Nikolaus Klepp via tde-users wrote:
Anno domini 2024 Wed, 29 May 08:30:20 +0200
Thierry de Coulon via tde-users scripsit:
Easiest scenario: Some programs use $USER to find their config file
location. You run that program as root. Now you have a problem that you
don't know about.
> To me there is little difference between running an app with sudo and
> running it as root. If I need to do a lot of work as root, I just log in
> as root (and I've set up the root desktop with ugly, flashy colours so
> that I know I'm there). Letting you login as root with a GUI is a nice
> thing of TDE.
>
> Of course no one should "live" as root (although I did that for one year
> when learning how to use Linux, but that was not a "production" machine),
> but why make people believe that as soon as they are root, they are
> doomed?
>
> People live as root on Windows machines and while this is a dangerous
> thing, bad things don't always happen.
>
> I just feel that this "never run Linux as root" is some religious mantra,
> and who does not respect it is an heretic.
> Thierry
If you recall, there were some earlier threads, started by the same person,
asking the same question; thus my answer.
I did not say, NEVER, never, ever, under any circumstances whatsoever ...
Besides, as I pointed out earlier in that thread, I sometimes do the same, run
konqueror or another program as root, because it is easier to perform some
tasks. As
I mention there, Nik, too, (I feel sure) sometimes runs a program as root; and
he is the person who first objected to running konqueror as root.
I was taking up a less extreme position, saying that it is just common sense:
don't live as root. Get in and get out. Don't leave a root process open and
available to anybody who might somehow, by whatever means, gain access to
your machine.
> if
you want to find out whether anything bad will happen by running
> Konqueror as root, then we will save you the time and trouble, and
> say, yes, sooner or later, bad things happen.
I always find this sort of declaration a little exagerated, and funnily
no one ever seems to answer: "why?"
Oh ... this is how flame wars started more than 20 years ago :)
Remember Bastard Operator From Hell? http://bofharchive.com
Nik
Well, just as long as nobody mentions Nazis or Hitler or fascists, then the
TDE mailing list is safe from that kind of embarrassment.
;-)
Bill