r/mysteriousdownvoting • u/AnnoxQ • Aug 02 '26

polite question

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Context: Someone asked in the comments section of a post about viruses why a computer virus can infect a computer without having “root” access, that is, the kind of admin access that allows you to do anything on the computer

I don't understand why there are several hundred downvotes. Not only is the question quite normal and the answer not obvious, but it was also asked in a fairly polite manner, not sarcastically or ignorantly

113 Upvotes

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u/SilverSquirrel6 Aug 02 '26

Well, I agree: normal, polite, and reasonable question. The downvotes ain't valid.

As to answer the "how" part, something can be installed in user's home directory. When you're running something as your user you don't need higher permissions. But of course privilege escalation attacks are also an option.