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J-Kuhntoday at 3:25 PM2 repliesview on HN

Systemd (part of many major linux distributions) has for example machine-id[1], readable by anyone on the machine under /etc/machine-id.

[1]: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/mach...


Replies

drnick1today at 5:10 PM

Unlike the Microsoft equivalent (?), nothing prevents you from scrambling it or outright chmodding to 700 to protect it from prying eyes.

I go further and bubblewrap software that I don't fully trust like Steam on my gaming machine. I simply don't expose /etc at all in most cases. The Linux security model is actually quite weak against potentially invasive software running in a main user account. For example /home is also completely exposed to programs such as games and anti-cheat software.

felooboolooombatoday at 5:30 PM

Yep, and firefox ships it to it's servers.