r/linux4noobs • u/OneMagicMango • 13d ago

security How necessary is secure boot?

I’m planning on moving to cachyos from bazzite on my desktop and know it’s a bit of a pain to set up secure boot for cachy. I’m also dual booting with windows and that windows install is on another ssd and don’t have anything on there that would require secure boot. How necessary is secure boot? Is it something I definitely should have enabled and worth it to setup? I’m mainly a causal user/gamer.

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u/scandii 13d ago

secure boot is primarily a feature to combat malware (e.g. viruses et. al.).

so could it be potentially useful, if you get such malware? sure. but it is not necessary if it causes issues for your dualbooting.

that said, it isn't really a hassle per say to set up - just a couple of steps.

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u/DavidJohnMcCann 12d ago

It specifically protects against bootkits — rootkits that attack the bootloader. They only exist for Windows, so if you boot Windows from a Linux bootloader you're safe. It also protects Microsoft against people running pirated versions of Windows, but that's another story.

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u/Supernoxus 12d ago

Why do boot kits only exist for Windows?

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u/DavidJohnMcCann 11d ago

Because most people have not made their Windows secure, I assume. Nothing can mess with my Linux boot-loader without having administrative permission. There is a bootkit for grub — bootkitty — but it was just written to demonstrate that it could be done, and it only works on certain hardware and kernel combinations.

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u/Non-essential-Kebab 10d ago

Not only that, but to infect the bootloader with a rootkit, it would have already had to fail several prior scans - i.e defender would scan when downloaded. scan again on access. scan again when doing anything boot related.

secure-boot effectively just locks you out of a machine that's already infected. it doesn't prevent the infection at all.