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Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

Remember the whole discussion when UNIX was supposed to not need anti-virus and talking down PCs?

Behaviours matter more than OS security primitives.

The whole (mistaken) belief that Linux and macOS didn't require AV was based on the execute bit being present, something Microsoft fixed back in XP by making downloaded files as such and preventing them from being opened trivially.

If you have code execution, you can attack the OS.

Indeed, when one installs dependencies all over the Internet, or even better, key projects use "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh" as default suggestion on how to install them, attackers have the work done for them.

> key projects use "curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh" as default suggestion

This is exactly why some (including me) don't take these projects seriously. Like you claim to design a language for security, and this is how you tell me to install it????

What alternative do you propose for downloading binaries off the internet, placing them in the "right spot" and doing post-install operations like updating PATH that dont have gotchas equivalent to running "untrusted" code like curl|sh?

The one that is the norm on Linux distros and on nearly all mobile OSs: signed packages. 'curl | sh' doesn't even allow to observe the package while or after installing.

Downloading some code from the internet and running it is a very normal way to install software.

curl|sh has the truncated shell script concern. It's possible to mitigate this concern. Did they? If so, it's no different from downloading and running any other installer.

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