Post #2278622

2026-05-08 00:09 UTC

If you refer to physical access I wouldn’t say that, I’ve encrypted partition. But if you’re saying just access to my main user inside the OS, then I’d really like if you could elaborate with real examples how can user access do any harm to my system without root access. Real examples please not speculation or theory. Something I can run here right away to see by myself.

Replies (2)

@TechLich@lemmy.world 2026-05-08 04:49

Your user account can run applications and read and write to a lot of locations on the disk. So it can be used to run malware (cryptominers, ransomware, RATs etc.) Exfiltrate the data your account has access to, download or plant malicious or illegal data, use your internet connection to attack other systems with DOS or similar, use any logged in social media accounts to attack or spam your contacts, steal saved passwords and credentials from your web browsers, use your peripherals or connected devices (printers cameras microphone speakers), pivot to access other services on your local network (smart devices, IoT, TVs, home lab) etc. There are comparatively few things an attacker wants on a desktop that actually require root access. It’s mostly just system files, package management and settings changes that require root to mess with. Eg. You would need root to dump a shadow file or stuff like luks encryption keys from kernel memory, but if an attacker has your logged in user account, the disk is already decrypted and account is already logged in.

Open ##2278621
@Corngood@lemmy.ml 2026-05-08 01:25

For me the scariest thing someone could do on my pc is exfiltrate all the data from my home directory which is readable by my user account. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but that's harm to *me* without root access.

Open ##2562309