You can lock nRF Util's home directory location to prevent unwanted changes to nRF Util or its commands.
To lock the home directory, create a locked file at its root.
When you lock the home directory, running the install, uninstall, upgrade, or self-upgrade commands results in an error with a message explaining how to unlock the home directory. For example:
> nrfutil install device
Error: The nRF Util home directory '/home/user1/.nrfutil' is locked. This prevents accidental changes to the installed commands. To unlock the directory, delete '/home/user1/.nrfutil/locked'