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Comment by fsflover | Hacker News Reader

The solution is to use https://qubes-os.org. My daily driver, can't recommend it enough.

Qubes is one of those things that, I think, everyone knows is better but it seems just far enough away to not want to change.

How big of a change is it? If you are, say, a Linux terminal native can you just pick up and run?

All software runs in Linux VMs, so it is practically the same as running several Linux operating systems with a nice UI.

You would feel at home more as a cloud native, because everything runs in its own VM, spun up and down on demand.

Qubes is enough of a pain to use that another OS project started to try to take the concept and make it more usable:

https://spectrum-os.org/

Doing so has proved hard and slow so far, and Spectrum hasn't had a usable release for the masses yet.

> Initial versions of Spectrum will have the user be responsible for writing Nix code for each application and resource, and the combinations they make between them.

As a qubes user, I think this is interesting but it definitely does not sound more usable.

Mostly yes. Your applications run in a standard Linux environment and if you pop up a terminal, hey, it's your favorite distro and it works.

There's some learning curve for features which exist for valid reasons, especially around communicating between domains. For instance, copy-and-paste between qubes requires extra steps. Plugging in a USB keyboard or mouse doesn't just work - you have to authorize it first (just click the OK button using a PS/2 mouse, or laptop's touchpad). You have to learn how to move files between qubes. USB drives, cameras, and microphones aren't globally available to all applications - you have to attach them to a qube first. You can install software using apt-get inside a qube, but it won't persist across reboots - you have to update the OS template.

I want those extra steps and complications - they are features, not a bugs! The first few days you'll be looking things up in the FAQ. After that it's pretty easy.

There are a few sore points that don't go away. You don't get GPU acceleration in your web browser, so rendering is slower. Gaming is not an option. Your application qubes live behind a firewall qube, so things that require network broadcast like Chromecast won't work. Those are fine for me but not for everyone.

Please tell me the USB devices that were there at install time get authorized.

> You can install software using apt-get inside a qube, but it won't persist across reboots - you have to update the OS template.

> I want those extra steps and complications

Is it wrong of me to say that enabling persistence, with snapshots, on a qube should be a single toggle?

> Please tell me the USB devices that were there at install time get authorized.

Yes, if you only have a USB keyboard, it will work. Manual creation of a USB VM then is recommended for security: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/usb-qubes/

> Is it wrong of me to say that enabling persistence, with snapshots, on a qube should be a single toggle?

Of course you are right. TemplateVMs provide /root partition to AppVMs and software should be installed normally to the former. At every AppVM reboot, their /root is reset to the one from TemplateVM. Ordinary, persistent VMs are also possible. Details: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/getting-started/

I tried it for a week. Feels like overkill so I instead went for Fedora Silverblue & have everything in isolated podman containers.

Of course, I’m not being targeted by the state so my threat model is much lower.

It might be an overkill if you need too big efforts to switch. I did not feel that way. The independent VMs for different workflows even helped to organize my work.

Everyone is somewhat targeted by the state already... Just not at a pin point level yet.

If you're targeted by state, Qubes on a PC isn't secure enough. It sits at a weird place, where it is stronger than your regular Linux, and showcases interesting ideas, but is quite restrictive in what you can do and doesn't provide any real security guarrantees. It's an open-source small shop project. Xen bugs and kernel bugs are too frequent, big boys know them/buy them/make them/exploit them, surely silently for years.

The idea your data on a PC connected to Internet can be really secured from the most powerful actors is very naive.

Snowden is using and recommending Qubes [0]. Only 25% of Xen bugs on average affect Qubes [1] and never lead to escapes. What is restrictive about Qubes? I do everything I need on it.

[0] https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/781493632293605376

[1] https://www.qubes-os.org/security/xsa/

Don't do things just because twitter persona says so. Is there an independent security audit of Qubes that checks its factual capabilities in security?

> Never lead to escapes

Escape is the highest form of security failure. I'm talking about data access and exfiltration.

Do you store all your important data on a VM with no internet access? Even Qubes users don't, it's hard to work with. Then it's Firefox/ kernel bug away from being accessed remotely.

XSAs are publicly known vulnerabilities discovered by someone who wanted to make it public and later were published by the Xen developers. There very probably are publicly unknown vulnerabilities, both in HW and Xen, discovered/created by people who want to profit from exploiting them. There are whole teams focused on this kind of work, payed by states and criminal-enablers like NSO.

> What is restrictive about Qubes?

No GPU acceleration for video in a VM, legacy OS on dom0. Xen development in support of modern CPUs has fallen behind, didn't even boot on modern Zen X570 platform last time I tried, dysfunctional nested virtualization, using KVM from Linux does not work, can't run Android Studio with phone emulator.

> twitter persona

Did you just call Snowden a "twitter persona"? You're not serious. Not sure if I should reply further after that.

> Do you store all your important data on a VM with no internet access? Even Qubes users don't

Yes, I do. And I'm a Qubes user. There are many more users like me on their forums. This is much more convenient than you think: you can easily and securely copy/paste passwords wherever needed.

I am serious. He is famous for leaking interesting US gov documents and running away, but then he's become a celebrity who talks and writes on the internet. What computer security work is Snowden known for that makes him an authority on computer security? If let's say Kevin Mitnick said Qubes is a solid product for data protection it would be interesting; Snowden, not much.

What about that audit?

If you keep all your important data off internet, that's good for you, and Qubes helps.

It's one of those things I keep thinking I'd like to try but actually implementing it seems like it'd be a huge pain in the posterior at first.

Am I wrong about that?

Probably depends on the hardware. See this: https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/community-recommended-computers....

Upd: yes, also there is no GPU acceleration in the VMs.

It's mostly a huge pain in the GPU, unless you only need the basics.

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