Can someone help me clarify how Flatpak works?
I thought Flatpak sandboxed your programs so they couldn't access files or folders outside of the sandbox unless you specifically granted access to them via Flatseal or another method. So for this reason, I have decided to run the Flatpak version of Steam because I don't trust Steam enough and I certainly don't trust the games enough to have free roam on my system.
In my Steam directory there is a folder named 'compatdata'. This is where Steam creates WINE prefixes for the games. Inside these prefixes you will find another folder called 'dosdevices' which has links to all of the drives in my system, including the root directory. From there you can look at any file on any drive. I also find that in the 'steamuser' folder (which has the layout of the windows home folder equivalent) there are links to folders in my Linux home directory such as documents, downloads, music etc.
I also did a little test with the Flatpak version of Librewolf and found that I am able to use it to save files to directories outside of the sandbox which it supposedly does not have access to. All I have to do is select the directory with the file browser that pops up when I chose to download a file.
So what I'm wondering is; How were these links even created by Steam if it supposedly cannot see and does not have access to these directories!? Can Steam and games installed via Steam freely access them?
Cheers.