I've just switched over in the last two days to Mandrake 9.0. I've looked around but there doesn't seem to be a big community built around Linux viruses. Do I need an antivirus program? The only one I saw was F-Prot for Linux.
There are worms, trojans, and other infectuous files for linux as there are for windows. They're easier to program in windows due to MS word macros, visual basic, and sheer stupidity of n00bs.
To answer your question, yes there are viruses for linux, and yes, you should probably invest in a virus checker.
-=bmacd=-
To answer your question, yes there are viruses for linux, and yes, you should probably invest in a virus checker.
-=bmacd=-
This answer is inaccurate.
While viruses do exist for Linux, I can't recall a single report of an actual Linux virus spreading in the wild. I'm not saying there have been none, but the typical Linux user does not need a virus scanner as long as they follow a couple basic rules:
- Don't use the root (superuser) account for day to day activities, only for sysadmin tasks that require it. Even then, you should instead use sudo.
- Don't execute any binaries (i.e. email attachments) you don't reasonably trust.
For the record, the virus scanners I've seen for Linux actually scan for DOS/Winblows viruses. They are largely meant for email and file servers that service Windows clients. I would say real world virus infections of Linux systems are exceptionally rare.
Kadarin
Lifer
- Nov 23, 2001
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The other thing you should also do is keep an eye on Slashdot for the occasional Apache or other exploits that could apply to Linux, and update your software as needed. While security issues can occur on any software platform, one big advantage to Linux is that patches get written and distributed very quickly.
Which is partly why I made the claim that Linux virus infections in the wild are virtually unheard of. The malicious code problem with Winblows is both technical & social.
Linux binary email attachments are just an example familiar to any typical PC user. On a similar token, I wouldn't download binary Linux software from a website I didn't reasonably trust & run it on my live system.
I did forget one bullet point:
- Regularly backup your important data, if not your entire system
In theory: yes
In practise: no. there are few Linux-viruses out there (dozen or so if I remember correctly). They rely on the user to execute a file using root-priviliges. There are no viruses that spread automatically (like Outlook-viruses on Windows).
What you should be looking out for are the occasional security-holes in the software you use (luckily those get fixed ASAP), and Apache-infesting worms. But those are alot smaller problem with Linux than they are with Windows (and IIS)
In practise: no. there are few Linux-viruses out there (dozen or so if I remember correctly). They rely on the user to execute a file using root-priviliges. There are no viruses that spread automatically (like Outlook-viruses on Windows).
What you should be looking out for are the occasional security-holes in the software you use (luckily those get fixed ASAP), and Apache-infesting worms. But those are alot smaller problem with Linux than they are with Windows (and IIS)
If your that paranoid about receving binary files for linux in linux, create a dummy user, and test out that binary file with that account. If it's a virus and screws up your account, so what? It' s a dummy account. The nice advantage of linux is that unless your root, the virus will NOT spread across your system. You should ONLY run root when installing rpms or tar.gz from TRUSTED sources. The Linux community normally laughs on any claims of viruses because if you play it smart then a virus will more then likely never touch you. Just make sure you keep all your files updated. Ever downloaded ximian gnome? www.ximian.com. I would suggest that you do, with that you can use red-carpet to download up to date files of mandrake. I do an update every day.
The slapper virus which came out a few days/weeks back was the latest outbreak, funny thing though, the patch was available months ago. If you kept up to date with the packages, you weren't affected.
Regarding anti-virus programs for linux, those are a real joke. Just people trying to make money. They see that linux is becoming more and more popular (it's about damn time!) and want to make money off of it.
The slapper virus which came out a few days/weeks back was the latest outbreak, funny thing though, the patch was available months ago. If you kept up to date with the packages, you weren't affected.
Regarding anti-virus programs for linux, those are a real joke. Just people trying to make money. They see that linux is becoming more and more popular (it's about damn time!) and want to make money off of it.
this thread is teh funny.
the reason why you dont see much press on viruses and exploits on linux/unix is because compare to windows users there are only a handful of users who use those platforms. there are defintely there, if you read the secuirty trades you'll see new exploits and viruses every week.
the reason why you dont see much press on viruses and exploits on linux/unix is because compare to windows users there are only a handful of users who use those platforms. there are defintely there, if you read the secuirty trades you'll see new exploits and viruses every week.
I guess that's why there are alot more Apache-worms than IIS-worms.... No, wait...
Fact is, design of Linux is more secure than design of Windows is. After all, hi-ranking MS-exec went on the record and said "Our products just aren't engineered for safety"
Nemesis, Apache is supported on both Windows or Linux, although I have to agree that it's probably more popular on Linux.
When someone tells me they use IIS as server, I tell them I'm sorry to hear that.
Linux was designed with a high level of security. Microsoft started adding security later. And to be completely honest, the reason why Linux is just better then Windows is because there is a much higher amount of people looking at the source code to find problems then with Windows. With windows, it might be 1000 people or so? (I could be way off here). With Linux, it's probably 100x that.
WTF does press have to do with anything, you tool?
The bottom line is the overwhelming majority of Linux users do not run any virus scanner, and yet their systems do not get infected by a virus.
Nobody said malicious code doesn't exist for Linux. Just that viruses are not the concern. Networking daemons and clients are a much larger security issue. Even there, IIS takes the cake for security.
Besides, Mickeysoft has such a lousy security reputation (even taking market share into account) that you have no ground to stand on amusing yourself in this thread. That's like Saddam Hussein lecturing India on weapons proliferation.
The bottom line is the overwhelming majority of Linux users do not run any virus scanner, and yet their systems do not get infected by a virus.
Nobody said malicious code doesn't exist for Linux. Just that viruses are not the concern. Networking daemons and clients are a much larger security issue. Even there, IIS takes the cake for security.
Besides, Mickeysoft has such a lousy security reputation (even taking market share into account) that you have no ground to stand on amusing yourself in this thread. That's like Saddam Hussein lecturing India on weapons proliferation.
Before 2.0 it worked on Windows, but no-one with half a brain would actually run it on Win in a production environment. With 2.0 that changed, but 2.0 isn't widely used yet. Most Apaches run on Linux and *BSD. The point of my reply was that if number of viruses is low because there aren't as many Linux-users, then Apache would have alot more worms than IIS does, since Apache has twice as big market-share as IIS does. Yet, there hardly are any Apache worms (well, we have Slapper, a worm that infested about 50.000 servers. For comparison, Code Red infested about 500.000 servers and Nimda about 300.000).
Like you said, Linux just has better security than Windows does. It's no point disputing that fact, since several MS-execs have testified that their products are full of security-holes ("our products just aren't engineered for security", "opening the source of Windows is threat to national security!").
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