In foo.debian-user, you wrote: > I have a question regarding security issue with Debian and Linux in > general. By now everyone has probably heard about the new Mellissa > virus. I know that this doesn't affect Linux because it is related to > M$ products only. However, I just wondered if anything of this sort > could happen to a Linux system? I know that Linux in general is > actually quite secure, but what makes it so? Just some information > about Linux security issue would be appreciated. Thank you for any kind > of info.
This particular virus is spread because the computer is allowed to run scripts just from the act of viewing a document. This could happen to Linux if we ever had a document format that was both popular enough and able to execute unsafe macros. Depending on the configuration and settings, this could happen if we had a MSWord Viewer that ran macros, a Gnome/Baboon format, or even an HTML/Javascript renderer built into the mail client. Actually, this could happen with any buffer overflow exploit found in a very popular mail client. -Mitch This is why email should be limited to text, and everything else is evil (your turn George ;-) )