How A Steam Bug Deleted Someone’s Entire PC

A deeper look into a steam-for-linux GitHub issue () investigating how a steam script was able to delete the entire contents of someone’s root directory. While the direct cause of the rm -rf is fairly obvious, how it was triggered in the original bug report is not, and may forever remain a mystery... Sources: (buggy copy of posted by “Acies“) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:26 Steam on Linux 1:40 The Bug 2:58 STEAMROOT 6:04 reset_steam() 8:11 Valve theory 9:21 My “theory“ 10:34 Fix Corrections: - At 0:56 the descriptions for /bin and /usr/bin are historically correct, but on modern Linux distributions (e.g. beginning in Ubuntu ), /bin is replaced with a symlink to /usr/bin (in a transition called “merged /usr“ or “/usr merge“) so both contain the same contents. Music: - We Shop Song by Philip Milman - Blue Mood by Robert Munzinger - Aloft by LEMMiNO ( - Firecracker by LEMMiNO ( - Cool Vibes by Kevin MacLeod - Financial Obligations by Philip Milman