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A Good Start at Eliminating Virus Attacks Against Your Computer.

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voidmain:
I disagree, assuming Lindows does not become a "standard", god help us. As long as the most basic security rules are followed I do not believe that "viruses" (by the definition of virus) will ever become a problem in Linux/UNIX.  Of course we will have to wait and see.  

I've been waiting 10 years now and have yet to see a single virus outside of M$.  On the other hand I have seen thousands in M$. Remember, a virus has to be able to attach itself to other programs, replicate and propogate itself, or it is not a virus. If you get an email with an attachment, and you save that attachment, make it executable, run it, and it deletes all of your personally owned files, that is not a virus, it's just malicious code.

[ July 24, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

DC:
Well, then maybe my defenition of a virus is flawed. Maybe what I described was a worm, not a virus. Not that normal people will know the difference (after all, by this description, most current viruses are worms as well).

Besides, to see viruses outside MS (the ones you define), search for 'linux virus' on Google. The first one I found, 'Bliss', is a cool one - it has it's own antivirus   . This virus will indeed need root access (or at least writeble executables) though. There are loads more.

KernelPanic:
I use this really good virus checker combination on all my windows PC's.
The first tools is called fdisk (great tool) and the other is this thing i use called linux which clears it up nicely    
Jokes aside you have to be careful with windoze, i only use it for gaming compatibility but i always have my trusty virus checkrer by my side.

[EDIT] Missed something, pull out that pesky RJ45 from the back of your PC and disable you CD-ROM and floppy drives. Trust no-one and sing happy songs.

[ July 24, 2002: Message edited by: Tux ]

voidmain:

quote:Originally posted by DC:
Well, then maybe my defenition of a virus is flawed. Maybe what I described was a worm, not a virus. Not that normal people will know the difference (after all, by this description, most current viruses are worms as well).

Besides, to see viruses outside MS (the ones you define), search for 'linux virus' on Google. The first one I found, 'Bliss', is a cool one - it has it's own antivirus    . This virus will indeed need root access (or at least writeble executables) though. There are loads more.
--- End quote ---


Sure, anyone can write a virus, but in order for it to be effective it has to have the ability to spread. Generally in *NIX it does not have that ability. Maybe one day it will happen but like I said, I haven't seen it in the last 10 years, nor have I heard of *anyone* who has actually had a virus problem in *NIX.

You are correct, your definition of virus is flawed. And a lot of "worms" now days are incorrectly listed as viruses, although a lot of them are accompanied by a virus. The worm does help it along.  But of course it seems these worms are only a problem in M$ Lookout.  Who's dumb fuck idea was it to allow a mail program to have the ability to automatically execute code contained within an email message????

Calum:
well i have to use windows for internetting, as you know, due to duff hardware. I use AVG antivirus since it is free for personal use and is as good as its pay alternatives (i used to use another free one which was swiped from under me by a lying company). HOWEVER i have only had about 4 viruses in my time and none of them have ever caused any noticable problems. Why? windows fucks up so much and gets reinstalled so much on its own that the viruses have never made themselves known to me.

Much more important to me is my firewall. I use zonealarm, which is also free for home use, and is excellent and simple to use. Why people worry about "viruses" when there are real people out there trying to break into your machine i'll never know.

As for viruses in unix, Lindows can fucking suck cock and die for all i care. The more i hear about this "system" the more it pisses me off. It's Microsoft windows' younger brother. ANd it will be even worse than M$Windows, since it is dressed in sheep's clothing.

A binary being run by somebody only has access to files owned by somebody, and so if they only have write access to files, for example in /home/somebody then the WORST that can happen is that those files get wiped. That is the worst, end of story. If somebody backs up their files, then no sweat. Of course, if the admin is dumb, then a lot more could happen. I hear of people saying "oh i just run everything as root, i never got around to making any new users, and it's easier for me anyway" but then i also hear of people saying "this lindows looks like the easiest way for me to switch, i think i'll BUY it"...

Re: bugs and holes, unlike windows, the linux kernel is open source, get it? many people do not realise the knock on effects of this. When somebopdy says "new hole in windows 2000, then hundreds of thousands of computers are vulnerable at a stroke, since they all use the same kernel. Also, windows is so fucking crap that even if all copies of windows 2000 get the new service update installed, some copies are just going to cack up and need reinstalled pretty quick anyway, and who can be arsed applying new updates to their cruddy windows box when it'll just need reinstalled soon anyway? (not me, last time i installed an M$ update it fucked my cdwriter program and i needed to reinstall, how "ironic") HOWEVER, since linux (and BSD i think) uses open source kernels, you can literally write your own modifications, and many do, and many more include their modified versions in distributions, plus the kernel gets updated a shitload more frequently than windows' kernel does, and this adds up to a fuckload more kernels out there. Out of a thousand linux users, all with versions of linux from the last six months, you could easily find a couple of hundred different kernels, yes? am i right, or have i missed something? get that many windows xP users, and count how many different kernels you get, and then find one of the holes in the kernel and bingo, point proven.

[ July 24, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

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