Newbie question on permissions

[Antony Gelberg]

William Stephens wrote:

> I understand why sudo makes sense. I guess my concerns come from stuff I
> have read on the internet that viruses and what not don't do a whole lot
> of harm except to your home directories cause of permissions, I was just
> wondering if the root terminal or apps as root could endanger system
> files?

Root is all-powerful, so yes.