Hello All,

First off, of course, thanks for the great work that you're all doing! The world is a safer place, thanks to your efforts.

I'm a government-transparency activist and, obviously, that's a little threatening to governments. I'm interested in using a laptop for some work that I'll be doing, on the road, and I want to keep it as secure as possible. Being as the NSA is intercepting online-ordered hardware and building in exploits en route, I'm aware that there is no perfect security to be had; I just want to decrease the odds that my data can be accessed.

To that end, I'm wondering about the risk of replacing my linux headers on my laptop. I'm currently using 14.04 (although I'm not opposed to downgrading), but some of my hardware drivers don't work out of the box. To get them working, it has been suggested that these steps be followed:

1) add the following to /etc/modules:
2) Download new headers:
3) Install new headers:
This does make my system usable, but I'm concerned about any security vulnerabilities that may open up. Do I need to be concerned?

Thank you for your guidance!

security is not a program or thing

it is a process

what hardware ?

WHO ????
some random person on some random website ?
or
someone that IS !!!! a expert's EXPERT

security is NOT a operating system

it is a way of life ,a way of working ,a way of thinking .


and you have left out some of the VERY BASIC things
full disk encryption
using a OS on a VM and that VM is an encrypted image

using things like tor or freenet or i2p

and using " tails "

I am aware that security is not a program or thing, John; I had hoped to make that clear with the statement, "I'm aware that there is no perfect security to be had." I'm aware that it is a way of life, a way of working, and a way of thinking. As well, I am already using an encrypted disk, my intention has been to use an encrypted VM, I currently use a VPN, and I use tor when out in public and occasionally with my VPN (although I understand there is some argument about the utility of this - and I understand both sides of that argument, just to be extra, extra clear with you, John). Although I do not at present use tails, it is my plan to being using it in the next few months.

I'm not an expert in security culture, but I'm not a complete novice and - in either case - none of your suggestions answer my question.

I need to know if replacing the linux headers, using the steps that I outlined, would likely or unlikely introduce additional security vulnerabilities into my operating system. I am not an advanced linux user and have no knowledge of whether or not it is possible to introduce security vulnerabilities in this way.

Unless you want a full accounting of my CS and security knowledge, I'm just looking for a simple consultation on this particular process. I was under the impression that I was exercising good security culture, by seeking some advice from "a expert's EXPERT", before performing this fix and moving sensitive data to my laptop. If Linux Questions is not the place to talk with experts, John, I'll happily move on. Are we on the same page, then?

well if you replace the default kernel ( you MUST!!!! have matching headers ) then YOU will have to manually patch it with ALL of the
Ubuntu patches.
Then add in all the security patches MANUALLY to the kernel

and build your own kernel

the chances of you missing many things is very high

the chances of someone that packages the official kernel for ubuntu to forget something is very VERY SMALL

but if you want to rebuild the kernel from source + patches for EVERY!!! fix and update


go for it

but it is a TON of work