I have the newest version of tails and everything has been running great since the upgrade (for a few weeks now). Yesterday, my dumbass tried installing Blockstream Green Wallet (long story why I felt like I needed to do this at the time) onto Tails to see if it would work. It did not work. Could not get it running at all, even though I tried downloading their Linux desktop version (that is also relatively a new release). Saved the file and extracted, etc. in the Tor Browser folder, since I figured it should not mess with anything in my persistence and should be removed upon rebooting Tails. Now, some weird things are happening with Electrum. Most of the time upon starting Tails, when I click on Electrum to open the program, it will show it wants to open on the top bar of the home screen, but disappears and never opens. BUT, sometimes it will open and run just fine. Also, now there is a random, very small incoming transaction (like 10 cents worth) of bitcoin incoming, but remaining unconfirmed, in my Electrum wallet. I never made a transaction anywhere near that small, so does not make any sense. I have been using Electrum for quite some time, and never experienced any of these issues. I can only assume that trying to install Blockstream Green Wallet screwed with the Electrum files on Tails, considering all of these issues came RIGHT AFTER trying to install the Blockstream Green Wallet. Any ideas what in the world could be happening? Is there any security risks or concerns from me trying to download Blockstream Green Wallet onto my Tails when I have a lot of persistence data? Thanks in advance.
/u/[deleted] · N/A votes · 11th August, 2020 - 04:07 · Link
So the other wallet is already gone now but your Electrum is still making problems? Electrum can be a bit of a bitch sometimes. If after a few reboots its still a bitch you can either simply wait for the next Tails release in about 3 weeks which will maybe solve the problem or download the latest Electrum AppImage from the Electrum website. Also, now there is a random, very small incoming transaction (like 10 cents worth) of bitcoin incoming These are called dust attacks and can be used when someone wants to track where your coins will go in the future. but remaining unconfirmed, Thats normal because the attacker will not waste much miners fee for the attack so confirming the transaction will take days or even months. Is there any security risks or concerns from me trying to download Blockstream Green Wallet onto my Tails when I have a lot of persistence data? I never heard of Blockstream Green Wallet so i dont know if they are legit but every software you download onto your Tails comes with some sort of risk. Thats why the additional software function of Tails can only install software from the official Debian repositories because they can be considered as safe.
/u/WhoKnowsBruh · N/A votes · 11th August, 2020 - 18:32 · Link
Thanks a lot, that's very helpful. So, I do not see any files anywhere that deals with the new wallet I tried downloading, so I am pretty sure all files associated with that wallet are gone. But, is there anything I can do to be sure that any files I tried downloading will not affect any of my other files or anything in the future? If I wanted to be 100% safe, would I need to make another Tails and just forget about this one because now there could potentially be harmful files, etc. on this one that I do not know about? Also, that really small transaction (dust attack) just randomly went away once I actually made an incoming transaction to my Electrum wallet. Super weird, right? No history of it ever even incoming as soon as I sent a legit incoming amount.
/u/[deleted] · N/A votes · 12th August, 2020 - 04:05 · Link
But, is there anything I can do to be sure that any files I tried downloading will not affect any of my other files or anything in the future? Usually under Linux when you deleted the folder/file of the tool you downloaded then it is gone (unlike Windows where a program pukes his stuff all over during installation). But Tails offers the possibility to enable the "Dotfiles" in your persistent storage which as far as i know allows a software to make links in Tails and interact with the OS when you started the software for the first time. So if you had enabled "Dotfiles" then the safest solution would be to make a new fresh Tails and use the new one. The other one could still serve as a backup Tails: https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/persistence/copy/index.en.html Also, that really small transaction (dust attack) just randomly went away once I actually made an incoming transaction to my Electrum wallet. Super weird, right? No history of it ever even incoming as soon as I sent a legit incoming amount. Then it probably was just some weird error and not a dust attack. Maybe even that was the reason why your Electrum was a bitch.
/u/WhoKnowsBruh · N/A votes · 12th August, 2020 - 17:44 · Link
Super helpful dude, really appreciate it. I did have dotfiles enabled, so I will switch to a current backup I already have made for if and when a situation like this occured. I have one last question... The computer I am using, I sometimes use as a Windows computer as well, and before I popped Tails in and tried installing this new wallet on Tails, I tried installing this new wallet on the same computer, but on the Windows operating system. I was able to login and everything, and had it working, but would have been easier to use for my intended purpose had it been on the Tails OS, which is why I then tried installing on Tails. I know Tails runs independently, but if I still have some files from the new wallet on my actual harddrive of my computer from my Windows OS, could that somehow be interfering with files on Tails by any chance? Thanks again for all the help.
/u/[deleted] · N/A votes · 12th August, 2020 - 19:39 · Link
[removed]
/u/WhoKnowsBruh · N/A votes · 13th August, 2020 - 03:35 · Link
Why was this comment removed?
/u/[deleted] · N/A votes · 13th August, 2020 - 03:51 · Link
Because the spam filter accidentially nuked my account but /u/Paris solved it and only the last 18 hours are gone. And it seems i need to solve captchas now before being able to post anything :| Did you already read my answer?
/u/WhoKnowsBruh · N/A votes · 13th August, 2020 - 18:11 · Link
I was wondering haha I was a bit confused, but no, I did not get to read your answer. Sorry. But I have been doing research on the last question I asked, and it seems that whatever is on my Windows computer before booting Tails, including viruses, cannot affect Tails, correct?
/u/[deleted] · N/A votes · 13th August, 2020 - 21:23 · Link
Basically yes. When you boot Tails then it loads itself from the USB-Stick into RAM and locks your harddrive. Tails does not touch your harddrive or any file on it. So to fire back from your harddrive into Tails your hardware(!) would need to be infected and in that case using Tails would not help much anymore at all. In case someone needs to deal with infected or backdoored hardware Qubes should be strongly prefered instead of Tails.
/u/WhoKnowsBruh · N/A votes · 14th August, 2020 - 19:20 · Link
Thank you very much for all the useful information!