The potential danger of .desktop files and more
In many X11 desktop environments, links to applications are usually represented by files which have the desktop extension in their names. These files, internally, have a format similar to INI files and specify information such as the command to execute and the icon used when representing it. They do not need to have execution permission and may run programs when they are clicked or doubleclicked (depending on your setup). The security implications of this have been already discussed many times before, in places like Linux Weekly News, but I think it hasn’t received enough exposure.
Traditionally, people consider Unix systems more secure for several reasons, one of them being that the ability to execute a program depends on the program having execution permissions, instead of depending on the file extension like Windows systems do. Many people are simply so dumb that if they receive an email message from someone they may not even know, they might follow the instructions in it, including saving an attachment to disk and giving it execution permissions if necessary.
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