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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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There's no way to srsly prevent a full-bloat browser from messing with its environment. Make a static VM image and reboot it at the beginning of every session.
Can you elaborate on this? I'm curious as to what manner a browser like Firefox could be exploited in order to affect its environment outside of something like a sandbox escape.
Tools:preferences, about:config, file downloads, form prefills, remember password, etc. yes you can try to lock everything but it's too easy to miss something. And then there are outright RCEs. There's just too much attack surface.
I agree. Flatpak could be used to further lockdown what Firefox can do, but it has so much features and complexity that I also expect it to be difficult to successfully lockdown.
I would either start with a product that explicitly has just the features a web-kiosk needs or use something based on ChromeOS, which explicitly has a set of enterprise policies that are there to allow admins to lock down a fleet of Chromebooks as they need.
This is based on the security principle that a system is far more secure if you explicitly allow what you need vs trying to explicitly block or disable all the things you don’t want.
Over time, the features you need to allow your web kiosk needs maybe somewhat static and in your control, while all the features you need to disable in Firefox could be constantly evolving and put of your control if you are keeping Firefox up to date.