Linux

48052 readers

818 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Isn't it weird that we put credentials in the environment? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Almost every program that we run has access to the environment, so nothing stops them from curling our credentials to some nefarious server.

Why don't we put credentials in files and then pass them to the programs that need them? Maybe coupled with some mechanism that prevents executables from reading any random file except those approved.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] markstos 23 points 1 year ago

The classic Unix user and permission system provides a solution for this.

Create a user for the app you are worried about. Make the environment variables available to that user only.

Other apps can’t read the secrets, and if the app itself gets exploited, it has access to the secrets in any case.