Linux Viruses (trojan,worm,spyware)

[javapenguin]

---

Fellow Linux users, has anyone got any bad experience with viruses? Do you install anti-virus? anti-spyware?

[cosplay]

Nope. I haven't got any since I always work on user mode. Viruses who infect user accounts have a much more difficult task because of the limited privileges of the user account. hahahaha.. all hail to Linux..

[javapenguin]

So in other words there are no harmful virus in linux as long you always work on user mode. Which means there's no such virus that can automatically gain root access?

[cosplay]

No. Bulletproof is one of the last stages of drunkenness, not a state of security. Linux users, like users on every operating system, must always be aware of security issues. They must act intelligently to keep their systems safe and secure. They should not run programs with root privileges when they are not required, and they should apply security patches regularly.

[catch]

Why worry? trojans, worms, spywares, and others were basically built for MS softwares. However, Linux has its vulnerabilities, for example, buffer overflows of such softwares could gain root access to the system. But if you are paranoid Linux/UNIX system administrator (who regularly updates or apply patches), the risk would be minimal.

[cosplay]

Or none at all. On Linux, there is built-in protection against such craft. Newly deposited files from your email client or Web browser are not given execute privileges. Cleverly renaming executable files as something else doesn't matter, because Linux and its applications don't depend on file extensions to identify the properties of a file, so they won't mistakenly execute malware as they interact with it.

Whether newcomers grok permissions or not, I try to explain the bottom line to them: that because they have chosen Linux, they are now free of having to pay either a security tax up front to protect themselves from malware, or one after the fact to have their systems sterilized after having been infected.

[catch]

However, Linux systems are vulnerable to a non-technical "hack" - social engineering

[cosplay]

hahaha.... "social engineering" huh?

[catch]

Yep, yep... Old school

[kryptocrap]

there might not be that much. however in our network, we're using clam anti-virus for the server and dr.web for emails.. we're doing it for the end-users. surely, if a virus (designed for windows) goes to the linux boxes, it won't affect at all. but what if it goes the the end-users who's having a windows on his/her pc?

so we have to catch it first on the linux boxes, even though windows clients are having their own anti-virus.

trojan,worms and spyware aren't really big issue with linux boxes. be much concerned with the running services in your boxes.