Another Newb question!

[EducatedHero]

Since I realized that Wallet.dat is the heartbeat of the bitcoin client; I was curious if the file is cross-platform. I wanna be able to securely transfer the file with scripts just in case of a computer malfunction.

P.S. I've been learning DOS and UNIX (Terminal) commands. I just wanna use my skillz and put em' to the test. 

[nmat]

Yes. If you are going to play around with it, make extra copies

[mjcmurfy]

Yep, the wallet file is totally os independent. You can have the same wallet.dat under windows/linux/mac/etc and each of the clients will access the same bitcoin wallet. Each time you move the wallet file though, you will have to re-download the blockchain.

[EducatedHero]

Yep, the wallet file is totally os independent. You can have the same wallet.dat under windows/linux/mac/etc and each of the clients will access the same bitcoin wallet. Each time you move the wallet file though, you will have to re-download the blockchain.

Another question; if I were to transfer the same Wallet.dat to seperates client the balance would "act" the same; in other words while connected to the network the balance would be simultaneously the same or no?

[cancis]

Another question; if I were to transfer the same Wallet.dat to seperates client the balance would "act" the same; in other words while connected to the network the balance would be simultaneously the same or no?

With minor delays, yes.

[marty.lee]

But if you were to have this on multiple oses then you are opening yourself up to more attacks on your wallet.

Kind Regards,
Marty Lee

[marty.lee]

Hello there guys. I am just a newbie here in this site, I want to join this forum for I know that I will enjoy being here. I hope that I can know a lot of you here guys. 

payday loans online

Great to see someone new on the forums. Please do not post irrelevant links and posts in any threads. (I am sure someone else will be here to say the same soon). But otherwise, nice to see more and more adopters of the crypto-currency.

Kind Regards,
Marty Lee

[EducatedHero]

But if you were to have this on multiple oses then you are opening yourself up to more attacks on your wallet.

Kind Regards,
Marty Lee

I agree with your ideology but i'll resist watching porn on these operating systems; lol. I was just considering developing a small local bitcoin consultant group. Considering that alot of people don't understand importance of having a proper anti-virus and also to mock the urban myths about bitcoins.

[peterPanski]

its ok to use the same wallet.dat on linux and windows
(i even copied over the chain database to my linux client to fasten up the first start)

[Cato]

I suppose you could still make your wallet.dat as insecure in Linux as it is in Windows. You could:

• Chmod 777 wallet.dat so that it is world writable.
• Share it over an insecure NFS or SMB share.
• Not use a firewall and park your Linux box inside your Network DMZ while running OpenSSH server.
• Pretend RAID is a backup solution.
• Never back up wallet.dat to a removable device.
• Have a weak root password that is either (1) a dictionary word, or a (2) a dictionary word plus some numbers so that you're vulnerable to a dictionary and rainbow-table attack.
• And of course, you could always run every application as root, including applications that are vulnerable to scripting attacks such as IRC.
• Disable SELinux/AppArmor.

At which point, your Linux box will be almost as insecure as a Windows box and your wallet.dat vulnerable. However, to truly replicate the insecurity you need to run Internet Explorer under Wine running with root privileges and surf the Internet for a while. That would just about do it.

Ok, I guess I'm in a snarky mood today

[EducatedHero]

I suppose you could still make your wallet.dat as insecure in Linux as it is in Windows. You could:

• Chmod 777 wallet.dat so that it is world writable.
• Share it over an insecure NFS or SMB share.
• Not use a firewall and park your Linux box inside your Network DMZ while running OpenSSH server.
• Pretend RAID is a backup solution.
• Never back up wallet.dat to a removable device.
• Have a weak root password that is either (1) a dictionary word, or a (2) a dictionary word plus some numbers so that you're vulnerable to a dictionary and rainbow-table attack.
• And of course, you could always run every application as root, including applications that are vulnerable to scripting attacks such as IRC.
• Disable SELinux/AppArmor.

At which point, your Linux box will be almost as insecure as a Windows box and your wallet.dat vulnerable. However, to truly replicate the insecurity you need to run Internet Explorer under Wine running with root privileges and surf the Internet for a while. That would just about do it.

Ok, I guess I'm in a snarky mood today

+1; LMAO that's sounds like alot of work but still will be necessary. This is good to know if any of my professor have more questions about. Some of them question the security about it.