Malware frequently exploits vulnerabilities in the browser or background services. After breaking in, malicious programs manipulate configuration files, install rootkits, or exploit other programs. A software tool called Firejail prevents malware from taking over by locking away Firefox, Apache, or any other endangered program in a jail.

In this isolated jail, which is also called a sandbox, a program that has been compromised by malware won't be able to manipulate any important files and can only run wild in the confines of its own walls. If so desired, Firejail will regulate and manage the view of the filesystem and discard any files created by the programs. Unlike a virtual machine, which emulates a complete PC, the GUI and server applications, as well as demanding games with 3D acceleration, run at full power in the Firejail sandbox.

Building a Jail

On the Firejail homepage, you can get prebuilt packages for popular distributions: Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS 7, and RHEL 7 [1]. All of these packages require a 64-bit system. Arch Linux users will find Firejail in the AUR; packages for Slackware are available from the SlackBuilds repository [2].

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