linux have virus ?

[leafleaves]

it is known of all, virus is popular in Microsoft windows system.

But in linux system,

have virus???

have little ??or almost nothing???

or at all nothing??????????????

where can read the book about the linux virus ?????????????????

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

please some help!!!! and give some excellent ,well website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay?????????????? ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

<< commentary on poster's use of English removed >>

Yes all systems have the possibility of getting infected. But the probability is higher on a Windows system, purely because there are more of them around, and so a more worthwhile target.

I am not going to discuss system vulnerabilities, as that argument has been done to death.

Edited September 2, 2005 by markjensen

[Danny Weed]

There are some viruses for linux, just not many.

[ichi]

As fas as I know, right now there're no virus on the wild affecting linux.

[leafleaves]

most of you are laught at me.

i DONT know why!!!!!!

i am seriously.really!!!

why areNT you serious talking to me?

i am really getting angrily.

this question is my friend asking to me!!!

i dont know how to answer to me.

so i came to neowin to asking for technology supported.

you haveNT no reasons to laugh at me.

i am serious.

by the way,

at last , really thanks for Mister ichi and Danny ,really thank you for your

helping me indeed.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Yes, there are (and can be) viruses for Linux.

Impact of these buggers are much more limited for a few reasons:

• they can only run with permission of the user, so cannot affect the whole Linux box
  
• malware is targeted against a vulnerable piece of software. In Windows, everyone has nearly cookie-cutter setups. IE, Outlook, WMP, MS Office. Three of the four I mentioned are installed without choice, and are sometimes used by the system even if you try to choose not to (IE is used for Windows help pages, among other things). In the world of Linux, there is Konqueror, Firefox, Dillo, Galleon and others for web browsing, there are several office apps KOffice, Abiword, OpenOffice.org and so forth for veiwing Word documents, plus almost too many mail apps to mention. For a virus to spread, it needs to find other PCs with similarly-equipped vulnerable apps. A KDE exploit will not work on Gnome, Fluxbox, XFCE or other desktops.
  
• Downloaded files or email attachments are non-executable. No risk of auto-infection when you have to manually and deliberately "chmod" the file to execute it.
  
• Patches in Linux are easy to automatically apply, and don't require rebooting (except if you want to run a new kernel). Also, using Linux tools like apt-get will update every piece of software you have installed with that tool - pdf tools, office apps, browsers, image tools and apps - everything. With updating less painful, and covering the whole system (not just the Operating System), the box should be generally more secure.
  
• Lower *nix population. While this alone doesn't make Linux safe, it does make things a bit more difficult to propogate. However, a virus left infecting Joe Home User's Linux box would still have to find another PC with the same vulnerable application.
  

That is what I can come up with off the top of my head.

But remember, being stupid on a Linux box (not updating, poor security practices, etc) will get you into just as much trouble as being stupid on a Windows box. Don't ever think that Linux = secure. ;)

EDIT: I want to make it clear to everyone in this thread (and on Neowin, as a whole) that not everyone is a native English speaker. Do not jump in just to criticize the way that someone tries to express themselves in a language that is obviously not their native one. :crazy:

[Danny Weed]

most of you are laught at  me.

i DONT know why!!!!!!

i am seriously.really!!!

why areNT you serious talking to me?

i am really getting angrily.

this question is my friend asking to me!!!

i dont know how to  answer to me.

so i came to neowin to asking for technology supported.

you haveNT no reasons to laugh at me.

i am serious.

by the way,

at last , really  thanks for Mister ichi and Danny ,really thank you for your

helping me indeed.

586470069[/snapback]

It's ok, i understand you.

Just tell him that there really isn't many virsues for linux, so he can feel pretty safe from them :)

[j79zlr]

But the probability is higher on a Windows system, purely because there are more of them around, and so a more worthwhile target.

586469949[/snapback]

That is just a false statement. The probability is higher on a windows system because of its security model, not simply because there are more of them.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Offtopic posts on the language of the post have been removed.

[j.r.l.]

The thing with viruses on Linux distros (and all *nix based OSes), is that no virus can go beyond the permissions root setup. There are a few but I can't name (I can't remember them :p) any... they probably wouldn't be able to run unless you have a very broken system anyways. Oh and by the way leafleaves, don't get angry at those who laugh at you. You can laugh at them because they don't make any effort ;)

Good luck.

[it_waaznt_me]

Virus arent much popular on Unix or Unix like boxes because of file permissions .. In *nix you have to change the file permissions to make it executable .. While in Windows all .exe , .scr , .com are executable by default .. so if its a virus executable, you will get infected .. But you will have to first change the permisssions of the file to get infected.. There are vulnerabilities exploits though ...

[Edit]I didnt read AresXP's post earlier .. He has posted more or less same in a better language I should say .. prolly this tab was left open for a bit more time :p Anyways ..

[Nichotin]

The list of Linux viruses is pretty short, and the few who could do some damage back then, are ineffective now, as they were exploiting security holes, not fundamental flaws in the architecture. The market share myth is true to some extent, of course, but that is only one of the many many factors. Remember, Linux is used for many server systems, so there arent really that few to infect.

The bottom line is, as per today, you should not worry about getting your Linux system infected.

[Mouldy Punk]

That is just a false statement. The probability is higher on a windows system because of its security model, not simply because there are more of them.

586470324[/snapback]

It's partly because of the quantity of windows/linux systems. Think of it this way:

98% of the worlds computers are windows

2% are linux

(of course these figures are purely fictional, but you get my point)

If you were a hacker/virus writer. Why would you waste your time to compromise only 2% of the worlds computers when you could compromise 98% of the worlds computers.

Firefox kinda proved that theory. When it was a beta and not widely known - Mozilla didn't release any security updates - simply because nobody found any exploits, because nobody was looking. Now it's more popular, Mozilla do need to release security updates because now hackers are trying harder to exploit it.

[phedot]

Well now I have a question... A Linux Root-kit could be classified as a Linux Virus?

Or it has is own "Classification"?

[j79zlr]

It's partly because of the quantity of windows/linux systems. Think of it this way:

98% of the worlds computers are windows

2% are linux

(of course these figures are purely fictional, but you get my point)

If you were a hacker/virus writer. Why would you waste your time to compromise only 2% of the worlds computers when you could compromise 98% of the worlds computers.

Firefox kinda proved that theory. When it was a beta and not widely known - Mozilla didn't release any security updates - simply because nobody found any exploits, because nobody was looking. Now it's more popular, Mozilla do need to release security updates because now hackers are trying harder to exploit it.

586471254[/snapback]

Ahh yes, but over half of the internet servers in the world are running apache, and I would guess the good majority of those are running on non-windows OS.

There are exploits for the Linux kernel and OSS, many of them, as all software will have, yet it is actually patched. The point is really that pretty much no user of linux runs as root normally, and pretty much all users of windows do. I do, if I try and run as a normal user or even power user, half of my software doesn't work.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Well now I have a question... A Linux Root-kit could be classified as a Linux Virus?

Or it has is own "Classification"?

586471255[/snapback]

I would class that differently. It uses exploits, sometimes local, to gain access. A virus is more or less an automated sript/app that propogates itself.

A rootkit often uses unpatched vulnerabilites to propogate. A virus runs code to do harm, and frequently is independent of software bugs (hence virus scanners, instead of Microsoft patches to fight viruses).

[Mouldy Punk]

A virus by definition needs to have a way to copy itself and spread itself - modern viruses use the internet, but floppy disks and other removable media used to be common. If it doesn't try to spread, it's not a virus.

[jack_canada]

Not a lot of viruses, you can run windows viruses on linux with wine though. :D

[j.r.l.]

To end up having a rootkit on your box, you really need to be hated ;) t0rnkit is one hell of a kit.

[Mouldy Punk]

Not a lot of viruses, you can run windows viruses on linux with wine though. :D

586471452[/snapback]

Actually, that's a good point. I've come up with a theory :D

If a linux user is running wine, a windows virus could infect the wine part of the system - so technically, as wine is part of linux (as in, it's running from linux) the windows virus would have infected linux. Kinda hard for me to explain it clearly, it sounded better in my head. But I'm sure you get where I'm going.

Linux can get every virus that windows can :p Just not as easily.

[MrA]

Not a lot of viruses, you can run windows viruses on linux with wine though. :D

586471452[/snapback]

I believe people have tried that already and failed. I guess wine has quite a way to go. :p

[Deanobear]

Here's an old article from The Register I found a while back, concerning linux viruses, or lack of. It's not a super-indepth article, but general info for those concerned about linux viruses.

*nix virus article

:ninja: