Dumb Questions #673.89-91 If I move all my HOME files to an external SSD: 1- Will my apps continue to work okay? For example: How will an app that automatically saves every few minutes know where its destination files are located, now that I have moved them? 2- Will doing this increase the security of my HOME files? 3- Does unmounting a drive make it inaccessible to malware?
1) App does not know physical location. It just sees file path. OS handles it. Edit: I assume that you type in information to files that keep mappings between paths in directory tree and partitions on drives 2) I don't think so. It won't hurt either, provided you format partition with file system that supports Unix file permissions (not FAT 32 nor exFAT) and you keep same physical security level against theft. 3) Yes. However malware with root rights can theoretically mount file system at any time. I wonder if what would happen if you don't have that drive connected during boot process... it is likely you may not have ability to log in to regular user account or you log in and nothing works until restart with connected drive.
Usually, by exploiting a bug/vulnerability in software or by taking advantage of a bad configuration. For a summary of methods you could check this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_escalation
