What about the guy that needed help communicating with the PCAnywhere host?

Gerard Perreault wrote:

> Considering that there is more and more use of free-ware in Linux, and that
> many of those free-ware utilities are installed by non root users (ie. games
> or neat programs), there is some potential for a Trojan horse attack,
> particularly if the source code is not available to the Linux community or
> the software is in beta version (which may not have gone through much
> supervison yet).
>
> The fact that the Trojan horse is still limited by the kernel restrictions
> (assuming it's not within a device driver), does not give me much comfort.
> Even if I do backups regularly, the thought of having to restore my home
> directory is not appealing at all. Specially if I had to restore those of
> many users.
>
> The main advantage of Unix based systems (like Linux), is that at least they
> have security, they take advantages of CPU capabilities to protect the OS. It
> is not like other systems which welcome viruses with open harms. At least
> Linux has locks on the door, but if you let them in, it's a new ball game.
>
> On Tuesday 05 February 2002 22:07, Terry Mathews wrote:
> > For a virus to damage more than the current user's files, it would need
> > root access. For that, it would have to have some sort of ability to "root"
> > the system, usually overflowing a port. The problem is that a virus that
> > could root several different UNIXes running different versions of services
> > would have to have many different hacks in it and would be very large in
> > size, and just the size alone would alert people to the fact it's a virus.
> >
> > Viruses get by on x86 systems because of common exploitable problems. A
> > 10-15MB virus would be much, much easier to detect.
> >
> > > > Well, I don't know if I'd go that far. They aren't common, but linux
> > > > or any unix (or any OS really) can have a virus/worm written for it.
> > >
> > > A worm is not a virus. I think there's only 1 true virus written for
> > > Unix, and it was more of a "proof of concept, IIRC.
>
> --
> Gerard Perreault
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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