I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

Re:I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online... by jstanley on Tuesday March 03, 2026 @11:37AM (#47234964)

We do sort of have that with the capabilities stuff (although I admit hardly anyone knows how to use it).

But the tricky part is that "reading files" is done all the time in ways you might not think of as "reading files". For example loading dynamic libraries involves reading files. Making network connections involves reading files (resolv.conf, hosts). Formatting text for a specific locale involves reading files. Working out the timezone involves reading files.

Even just echoing "hello" to the terminal involves reading files:

  $ strace echo hello 2>&1 | grep ^open
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpcre2-8.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/filesystems", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/self/maps", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
  openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib/cargo/bin/coreutils/echo/en-US.ftl", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOTDIR (Not a directory)

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Re:I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online... by tadfisher on Tuesday March 03, 2026 @12:25PM (#47235669)

OP says "restricted access to files". Read access to your home directory is not required for loading dynamic libraries or printing the time.

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Re:I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online... by jcgl on Wednesday March 04, 2026 @05:44PM (#47255031)

Capabilities are craaaazy coarse on Linux. Really only a small piece of the sandboxing puzzle. Flatpak, Bubblewrap, and Firejail each provide an overall fuller view of what sandboxing can be.

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