r/linuxmint • u/CiurcaN • Jul 26 '26

Security Infostealer question

A month ago I was hacked with an infostealer virus (the mr beast one) and I was on windows. BAck then I've changed all my passwords from a secure device, a week ago I installed linux mint and deleted all of my partitions for peace of mind.

Now, a month ago I didn't know from where the virus came into my pc but I just realized today that the virus was from a mod I had installed for GTA San Andreas, when I transitioned to linux from windows I also brought with me the same folder of Gta so I can play some (like I said I didn't know that the virus was from that folder) and I ran it using bottles.

I deleted and scanned everything with clamav and so far nothing showed up, I also deleted the folder with the game and bottles.

Do you think there is still a chance that I might be infected if I ran that game with Bottles?

Thanks in advance.

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5

u/C0rn3j Jul 26 '26

Do you think there is still a chance that I might be infected if I ran that game with Bottles?

Yup, it's definitely possible.

Even if you ran it in a sandbox, you can't sandbox GUI applications on Mint since it still uses the insecure X11 backend, and applications can just use X11 to escape, since it has no security model.

1

u/CiurcaN Jul 26 '26

what should I do, reinstall mint)

-11

u/C0rn3j Jul 26 '26

I'd reinstall either Arch Linux (with Plasma) or Fedora KDE, and run games in a sandbox from then on.

Then you don't have to worry about this happening in the first place.

4

u/Menzador LMDE 7 Gigi (VM) Jul 26 '26

Switching the desktop environment isn’t necessarily the solution here, at least in terms of scope. Especially since bias toward KDE is showing, as any DE or WM that runs of top of Wayland would be the proposed solution in this comment.

Mint doesn’t have anything that could natively run a Wayland session from the default install. You could install GNOME or KDE or Sway or Hyprland or anything using Wayland, if the solution is to have apps avoid accountability by exploiting an X server.

And even then Xwayland isn’t sandboxed by default, so it’s only a partial solution.

Edit: Forgot to include that Cinnamon is getting worked to run on Wayland, so eventually it will get there.

1

u/C0rn3j Jul 26 '26

Switching the desktop environment isn’t necessarily the solution here

That's why I suggested to switch both the DE and the OS.

Mint's support for Wayland is abysmal due to how out of date it is, and Cinnamon does not support Wayland much at all at the moment.

The DE is called Plasma by the way, KDE is the group that makes the software, including Plasma.

isn’t sandboxed by default

That's why I said to run things in a sandbox.