I found this really old blog post and it still applies today.
We don’t really have antiviruses, and thats nice. But we have a huge monolithic kernel, we have random executable files all over the filesystem, we have systems that to this day often dont even update without elevated privileges.
Android took Linux and fixed it, long ago. You dont even have root! Their app ecosystem is often very restricted by design though, as its a phone OS.
Desktop Linux needs to get more secure, compartimentalized, perfectly usable
- without sudo privileges
- without apps having read/write access everywhere
- without X.Org
- with portals, control, Wayland, Pipewire, Flatpak
- with a split up kernel, drivers in userspace, adapted to the actual hardware you are running
- with as much hardening applied as possible to simply shut off everything you dont need.
I guess there are many great projects out there that try to create exactly such a system
- musl, busybox
- RedoxOS
- hardened_malloc, *BSD software
Can you recommend more software that is secure by design? The blog author mentioned Postfix.
I’m not sure what you mean about without sudo - if there’s a root account logging over isn’t more secure than SU or SUDO. At some point you trust someone with root access either by ssh key, password or sudo abilities.
Openbsd har a rather stellar security history, but there’s still root.
Also there’s still root on Android, so I don’t agree with your point of “Android fixed Linux”. You don’t need to elevate to install software, but the software you install can elevate (https://www.tomsguide.com/round-up/best-root-apps)
In what way is the need for privileges for system stuff like boot config solved without root?