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A lot of software uses
systemd-journaldto log errors, -
The bash shell saves everything you type into the terminal,
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wtmp, btmp, utmp all track exactly who is logged in and when,
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The package manager logs all software you install and keeps the logs after uninstallation,
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And the kernel writes part of the RAM which may contain sensitive information to the disk when your PC crashes.
While the OS isn’t sending these logs to Microsoft or Google, anyone who gets into your PC while you are logged in and your data is unencrypted can see much of what you have been doing.
If you want to be private, you must disable them.
I got reports on this. I’m personally not of a mind to remove it, but it does feel irrelevant to open source. It’s more a Linux sysadmin type thing.
I will say, cut down the spam. Any repeated similar musings within a week would be low value and I’d probably remove.
I personally don’t agree with this and this wouldn’t be relevant to most peoples risk profile.
Worth reflecting on what others have said here. I think you’re worrying too much about something that will never be expolitable in standard usage and this is from someone who worries a lot about privacy.
Maybe if this is really important to you check out Tails OS which as far as I’m aware focusses on running in RAM and leaving minimal persistent state.
If someone gets into your PC, you have much bigger problems than them reading the system logs.
REALITY IS NOT PRIVATE OUT OF THE BOX.
EVERY PHYSICAL INTERACTION IS BASED ON CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE.
IF A DEMON COULD KNOW THE MOMENTUM AND POSITION OF EVERY PARTICLE, THEY COULD LOG EVERY ACTION AND THOUGHT YOU’VE EVER HAD.
WHILE NATURE ISN’T SENDING THESE LOGS TO A DIVINE CREATOR, ANY INTELLECT VAST ENOUGH TO SUBMIT THESE DATA TO ANALYSIS WOULD SEE THE FUTURE, AS THE PAST, PRESENT TO ITS EYES.
IF YOU WANT TO BE PRIVATE, YOU MUST CEASE TO EXIST
caps lock detected. Legibility level = 0
skippingWhy do you write like Elon Musk tweets?
i don’t know how melonTusk writes or xhitts. Why do you read his “tweets”?
Yes, you already posted that 3 days ago
Lmao, I thought this was the same post somehow getting back up to the top of my feed. 😂
You posted this same silly thing about 3 days ago.
anyway why isn’t the advice “encrypt your drives” instead of “disable all logging”.
I mean your own examples are like the least serious problem.
Who is logged in and when? So we’re talking a multi user system that’s clearly hosting a lot… that’s kind of important for an administrator to be able to track who is logging in when, to know if something goes wrong.
Package manager logs what’s installed. well duh, what’s the scenerio that this is even a factor? I don’t want big government to know I had, qbittorrent or whatever? There’s no program that’s likely installed via apt that’s illegal to have.
So yeah in short, stuff that’s vital if you ever need to troubleshoot, useful in general, almost unthinkable to imagine situations where this is a problem (at least in situations in which someone has your user account, or root access to your system for these to be the high priority.
On the whole the idea there is like.
“If someone steals your car… they could also steal the car users manual”.
“If someone gains access to your computer, they could view the log files on it”
My dude, they could view everything on it? The answer is full disk encryption, not turning off log files.
There are levels of paranoia that gets to the point of excessive time spent managing your footprint that could be better used elsewhere as I would imagine especially if you’re not a high value target. I am not a high value target
I, for one, consider myself a shitty target
The other day I was writing in my notebook and then I opened it later to check, and everything that I wrote was there! If someone could get their hands on my notebook, they could read all my notes!
yeah “vulnerabilities” that require physical access to the machine while its logged in don’t exactly worry me.
This may be true, but if you disable a lot of the logging troubleshooting your PC will become hard or impossible and a lot of people like having a bash history. Its another convenience vs privacy compromise. So just be sure to know what you are doing as always. I doubt the average linux gamer will have to worry about this.
This is more of a “be aware of your footprint” and less of a “security concern”. This post is pressing hard on the fear of data getting stolen, however none of these things are major ways in which your data gets stolen.
It’s phishing, social engineering, default configurations, weak passwords, no MFA, compromised online-services and supply-chain-attacks, and then, and only then are we even talking about actual CVEs in your local system and app environment. And usually we are talking old ones; for apps which you haven’t updates in a while, as they are the most common.
What I’m saying is for your target audience, this is exactly the wrong thing to focus on. Tech savvy users might wanna look into this but they are very likely aware of all these things, and amateurs definitely should focus on basic security practices.
I hope you post about this every 3 days for the rest of your life!
BTW adding a space at the start of a bash command stops it from being added to history.
In this case, the only way to be truly private is to use distro on bootable drive with disabled persistent storage.
