Using root.

Message

alu. · Post by **alu.** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:50 pm

I only wanted to know why the working as "root" is dangerous.

What are the risks when I'm only working under my root login?

adaptr · Post by **adaptr** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:05 pm

Anything you accidentally delete is gone.

Forever.

kaidon · Post by **kaidon** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:05 pm

1) If you make a mistake the damage is permanent imediatly, the system can't protect you. For example I once did rm -r .* in my home dir. If I had been root it would have wiped out my entire disk. Since I was working as a ordinary user I only lost the files in my home dir.

2) If you run user app's as root you give them total control over your machine. Say you're surfing the web with for example mozilla. Now you visit a website on which some bad guy has included a malicious program that attacks some security problem that was discoverd in mozilla. If you're root, he has total control over your machine and can do whatever he wants. Like install spam software, or use your box to do illegal stuff or the like.

Using sudo and su it's easy to become root when it's necessary. So there's really no reason to work as root.

cheers

alu. · Post by **alu.** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:20 pm

I see, thanks for your replies.

In kde, can I switch from normaluser to root when I need to? I know that I can in the console.

adaptr · Post by **adaptr** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:30 pm

Well, there's kdesu, but it's masked ~x86.

kaidon · Post by **kaidon** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:32 pm

Google found this:
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=11227

Don't know if there are any built-in tools for this. I don't use KDE.