Re: [Evolution] Virus scanning in Evo

[Andre Truter <andre truter intekom co za>]

On Thu, 2003-08-21 at 18:38, Fred Blaise wrote:
> Linux not vulnerable to viruses... well this is new to me...

This is an academic statement.
Yes, it is possible to write a virus for Linux and Unix, but there are a
few things that make them less of a threat.

There have been a few concept virii written for Linux, to prove a point
and there is even a Linux-virus HOWTO
(http://www.lwfug.org/~abartoli/virus-writing-HOWTO/_html).

The thing is that on Linux the probability that you will get infected by
a virus through mail is very slim.  You will basically have to install
the virus yourself on your system.

Files are normally not executable in Linux. You have to make it
executable and run it before it can do anything and then it will only
affect your user account, not the system.
Linux mail clients normally will not execute any attachments.

You have a better change of being hit by a cracker that exploit some
vulnerability on your system and gain access to your machine and install
some worm or something on your machine, than getting a virus via e-mail.

You should rather think of getting a firewall set up.

> Let's say that virus makers target what's easier...
Yes, writing a virus for Windows is *much* easier than Linux, because
Linux does not cater for the environment that is needed by a virus to
work.

There have even been challenges with prize money to infect a Linux box
with a virus and so far nobody had any success.
http://www.roaringpenguin.com/mimedefang/anti-virus.php3
http://www.silicon.com/news/500013/1/1028211.html


-- 

Andre Truter    Software Engineer   Registered Linux user #185282
ICQ #40935899   AIM: trusoftzaf     http://www.trusoft.za.net

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