Is BOINC safe to run on your personal computer/server with your private files?
from HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml to privacy@lemmy.ml on 29 Aug 04:27
https://lemmy.ml/post/35362317

Is there any way hijacked tasks can read your other files? I assume BOINC uses some kind of sandbox but how secure is it? All my stuff run Linux if that makes a difference.

#privacy

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davel@lemmy.ml on 29 Aug 04:47 next collapse

No idea. But you may be able to restrict its file access at the OS level just to be safe, or run it in container(s), which it appears to support: github.com/BOINC/boinc/wiki/Docker-apps

veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Aug 04:55 collapse

Even better if it can be run on Podman, since you won’t need a potential root access and hook to set up the containers in the first place, and UID mapping on podman rootless will pretty much guarantee that the user IDs the process gets are not mapped to any real user in your system.

davel@lemmy.ml on 29 Aug 05:38 collapse

Yes, I use Podman for personal projects for that reason (and for FOSS reasons).

Cat_Daddy@hexbear.net on 29 Aug 04:52 next collapse

In the past, no, there have been remote exploits done through BOINC. But I haven’t been an active participant in over a decade, so I don’t know what their security is like now.

stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net on 29 Aug 07:54 next collapse

No. Don’t do this.

icelimit@lemmy.ml on 29 Aug 12:53 collapse

Oh man that takes me back. ran seti@home for the better part of a decade.