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Re: The virus threat to Linux

  • Subject: Re: The virus threat to Linux
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:46:30 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: schestowitz.com / ISBE, Manchester University / ITS
  • References: <pan.2006.08.09.23.38.18.361005@goawayspammer.com> <1155168411.708350.30390@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com> <pan.2006.08.10.00.39.14.665760@goawayspammer.com>
  • Reply-to: newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • User-agent: KNode/0.7.2
__/ [ arachnid ] on Thursday 10 August 2006 01:39 \__

> On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:06:51 -0700, peterwn wrote:
> 
> 
>> arachnid wrote:
>> 
>>>     As system administrators move to Linux files servers they have a
>>>     real problem to deal with since the Linux file server can store
>>>     Windows-based viruses. Windows-based viruses can write to a
>>>     Linux/Samba network share as easily as they can on a Microsoft
>>>     Windows based network. System administrators must protect the Linux
>>>     server from storing these viruses. The only way is through active
>>>     antivirus defense on the Linux server itself... <snip>
>> 
>> Agreed - it makes sense to install the likes of Clam anti-virus or
>> similar in such situations.  This looks for Windows viruses.
>> 
>> If someone is trying to peddle an anti-virus to protect Linux systems,
>> one needs to ask what the product actually does.
> 
> Is this what they mean by "selling ice to an eskimo?"
> 
> I'd like to have a breakdown of those 100 viruses and their applicability
> to current systems. Most of them are probably obsolete viruses from years
> and years ago that never made it out of the lab. I'd guess there might
> be 5 or less out of the bunch that could pose a danger today, IF you had
> the right distro, with the right kernel version, running the right version
> of some application, had your system misconfigured just so, and did
> something really stupid to get infected in the first place.

True. That's where diversity (as opposed to monoculture) serves a purpose.
See the following:

,----[ Quote ]
| To test her concept, Forrest experimented with a version of the
| open-source operating system Linux. She altered the system to force
| programs to assign data to memory locations at random. Then she subjected
| the computer to several well-known attacks that used the buffer-overflow
| technique. None could get through. Instead, they targeted the wrong area
| of memory. Although part of the software would often crash, Linux would
| quickly restart it, and get rid of the virus in the process.
`----

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/security_and_mo.html

Also see:

http://www.redhat.com/f/rm/choice_small.rm
http://www.redhat.com/f/ogg/choice.ogg

The part about complex systems built from the best components springs to
mind.

Best wishes,

Roy


-- 
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Statistics are lies.
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