Aurora OS Documentation latest
/

Documentation › System

Security and privacy

Firewall, updates, encryption, fingerprint, permissions, administrator prompts and what goes online

Built in

  • Firewall on by default (ufw): incoming connections are blocked, outgoing allowed. Settings → Privacy & Security → Firewall. Ports for sharing open only while that sharing is on.
  • Automatic security updates.
  • AppArmor confines services and several apps.
  • Full-disk encryption (LUKS2), chosen in the installer.
  • Secure Boot on installed UEFI systems.
  • No telemetry, no crash uploads, no ads, no account required.

Administrator

The first user is an administrator (in the sudo group). Settings never runs as root: when an action needs it, a password prompt appears (polkit). With a fingerprint set up, the finger works for sudo and these prompts, but never for the login and lock screens (the password also unlocks your keyring).

App permissions

Settings → App Permissions lists what Flatpak apps were allowed through portals (camera, microphone, location, screenshots, background running…) and lets you revoke it.

Privacy & Security page

Screen lock, file history (Remember recent files, Clear History…), clipboard history, online services (weather) and the firewall.

What goes online by itself

Every network request the desktop makes on its own, all optional:

  • Weather: Open-Meteo, with the chosen or approximate position, when the weather is shown.
  • Location: GeoClue, only when no city is chosen in Weather.
  • Exchange rates: the European Central Bank's public file, only when you type a currency conversion.
  • Picture of the day: Bing, NASA or Wikimedia, once a day, only if you chose that background.
  • Updates: Debian's, Aurora's and Flathub's servers.
  • Aurora AI: nothing while it runs on your computer; downloads when you set up a feature; your questions go to a cloud provider only if you choose one.

Sun position, OCR, clipboard history, emoji, unit conversion and screen time run offline.

No app starts by itself and goes online on its own. In particular the BitTorrent client (Transmission) only runs when you open it, and even then contacts nobody until you turn its peer network on (see Torrents).