FW: [PLUG] Microsoft to kill popular Linux antivirus product (fwd )

[Wil Cooley]

On Thu, 2003-06-12 at 08:37, Linux.Administrator at odot.state.or.us wrote:
> Can anyone tell me of a virus that will actually do anything to Linux? Sure,
> you can pass the "Outlook virus du jour" to your clients if you're running a
> server, but what virus can actually do damage on a Linux client without
> becoming root first? I've never understood that one.

In theory, a poorly-written end-user app is just as vulnerable on Linux
as on Windows.  It might not root your system, but the bulk of the nasty
Windows viruses these days are user-level viruses: They come through
e-mail, execute as Word Macro viruses, read your files, sometimes send
them to other people, look for files on network shares and infect them. 
Nothing that requires any sort of superuser privileges.  In reality,
there are a couple proof-of-concept viruses for Linux and our end-user
applications tend to be a little less stupidly written.

However, few people actually buy anti-virus software for Linux to
protect it; most buy it for servers for Windows clients, like my Mail
Defender setup.

Wil
-- 
Wil Cooley                                 wcooley at nakedape.cc
Naked Ape Consulting                        http://nakedape.cc
* * * * Linux, UNIX, Networking and Security Solutions * * * *
*     Tired of spam and viruses in your e-mail?  Get the     *
* Naked Ape Mail Defender! http://nakedape.cc/r/maildefender *

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://lists.pdxlinux.org/pipermail/plug/attachments/20030612/e5127973/attachment.asc>