--- Anant Narayanan wrote: > If I were to make a virus, I would cloak it under > the pretext of some > other useful software. Think of a binary blob that > supposedly > installs a Flash Player on your system, or the > Netbeans IDE, or some > graphics drivers (ATi/nVidia?). You need to run the > binary as root, > and you will do so. I'll show you a progress dialog > and all the > works, but do some damage in the background - and > the user is none- > the-wiser.
If the source of acquiring the binary blob is trusted, the damage could be fatal - depending on the damage in the background. At FOSS.IN/2006 conference, it was stated, the security of packages uploaded to repos or accepted as a package is a major concern for Debian Developers and these packages are monitored carefully. This leads us to a point, Linux distribution users are / should become really vigilant about how they update, install and operate their system. For most Windows users, it is "Next -> Next -> ... -> Finish". "XYZ is successfully installed". Is it so? -- FSF of India Associate Fellow - http://www.gnu.org.in http://db.glug-bom.org/wiki/index.php ubunturos @ freenode Send free SMS to your Friends on Mobile from your Yahoo! Messenger. Download Now! http://messenger.yahoo.com/download.php -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
