Re: Antivirus

From: Paul J Gans (gans_at_panix.com)
Date: 08/13/04 

Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 03:34:14 +0000 (UTC)

srm <user@example.net> wrote:
>Geoff F. wrote:
>>>Certainly viruses CAN be written for Linux.
>>
>>
>> They can?

>[snip]

>> Now let's see, there was Scalper (June 2002) & Slapper (September 2002)
>> neither of which did much damage, & the worst of those two took ONE week &
>> *only* damaged 20,000 machines.

>The Symantec site lists 14 Linux viruses. But none since 2002 and most
>were 'proof of concept' types where the payload or potential damage was
>classed as negligible or trivial. Most required very specific
>environments in which to operate.

There are vulnerabilities in many programs that run on Linux.
Consider how many programs come with the SuSE 9.1 distribution.

There are relatively few vulnerabilities in the kernel itself
and this is important.

If a bad guy compromizes a linux system, most of the time all
he's done is take over a user account. That does allow him to
do some things (depending on the policy of the machine) but it
does NOT allow him to take over the machine.

There are very few exploits that allow a user to become root.
(Unless, of course, one insists on running user programs as
root.) Further, taking over a linux machine needs some
expertise to use to the bad guy's advantage.

So while not perfect, a linux machine is protected in layers,
a concept not known in any current Windows operating system.

Thus it is not an inviting target.

However, the odds are, like terrorist attacks, that serious
attempts to attack linux machines *will* be made. That's
why we all try to keep our systems up to date and properly
patched.

   ---- Paul J. Gans

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