this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
21 points (95.7% liked)

Linux Gaming

15402 readers
256 users here now

Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.

This page can be subscribed to via RSS.

Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.

Resources

WWW:

Discord:

IRC:

Matrix:

Telegram:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
monolalia
21
What are the risks of installing Vanguard on a PC with dual boot? (self.linux_gaming)
submitted 7 months ago by loo to c/linux_gaming
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

tl;dr: Security concerns for my Linux partition, when running Vanguard on Windows?

Now that Vanguard is out, I can't play LoL on Linux anymore. I'm running a dual boot setup with windows and I'm using it only for stuff I can't get to work on Linux, so there is no personal data on there.

  • Are there any security risks for my Linux partition, if Vanguard is installed and running on my Linux partition?
  • Could Vanguard potentially access my ext4 Linux file system via Windows?
  • If my NAS is mounted on Windows, could that also be a security concern?

I'm grateful for any kind of feedback, since I'm not very informed in terms of rootkits and kernels!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)
  • probably not, Linux isn't running when you're in Windows, and Windows isn't running when you're in Linux
  • it could, but I think you'd need a targeted attack for malware to jump from Windows to Linux, since that's a pretty niche target
  • yes, if it has write access, you're open to ransomware attacks, which are a fairly common form of malware; if your NAS has a rollback option, you're probably fine, but definitely make sure your remote backup restore works (you do have off-site backups, right?)

If you want to be extra secure, encrypt your Linux partition. They could still corrupt your Linux partition, but they wouldn't be able to read anything on it without your password. Both of my Linux machines (laptop and desktop) use an encrypted root partition, and they run games and whatnot just fine (I don't notice a slowdown).

[–] loo 1 points 6 months ago

Thank you very much! Long-term I will encrypt my drive and since I don't have off-site backups for my NAS, I will just unmount it on Windows.