-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 On 21/08/15 04:50, Renaud (Ron) OLGIATI wrote: > On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 19:33:17 +0100 Brian <a...@cityscape.co.uk> > wrote: > >> On Thu 20 Aug 2015 at 20:24:16 +0200, Diogene Laerce wrote: > >>>> Hello guys. I wanted to know if antivirus is required for >>>> Debian or for linux in general. And if it is required, what >>>> are the recommended antivirus for Debian? Thank you in >>>> advance. > >>> Required no, advised I guess. > >> You guessed wrong. > > Although I know that proof-of-concept viruses (virii ?) have been > created in computer labs, has anyone seen one alive in the wild ?
Maybe it'd be helpful to consider what a "virus" is, in the context of computing. In a nutshell, it is an exploit for a security vulnerability, that embeds code to try and seek out and infect other victims that suffer similar vulnerabilities. What does anti-virus packages do? It's basically an intrusion detection system, looking for anomalies in programs and files that indicate evidence of an intrusion, combined with some knowledge of how to "disinfect" the infection caused by the malware. The approach used on DOS (inherited by Windows), is to basically react to software vulnerabilities by trying to treat the symptoms: malware infections. The approach used on Unix systems (inherited by Linux) is to try and find and treat the underlying security vulnerabilities that permit the malware to infect the machines in the first place, with perhaps an IDS package like TripWire and/or Snort to detect when an intrusion takes place. You decide whether an anti-virus package is truly needed. - -- Stuart Longland (aka Redhatter, VK4MSL) I haven't lost my mind... ...it's backed up on a tape somewhere. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iJ4EARMKAAYFAlXWMO8ACgkQoCQEvFhlDPn/xgH/Vmy4O51cElH9/FKosjLczdAZ 6//OIwLwdw0pf47LdNOUwD31G5/Y6s/uIFxCrKqcXobP2LgFljfxjqfMylvcQgH9 GvC9PVp1MqN3fyudqZYKqaWSKTwtTXTPMfhyugnj0pl2LphOUmnnUWftZwQ1yyxu oFd171ESuvTa34HTpxbksw== =qltK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----