On Wed, 2002-04-24 at 21:21, Richard S. Crawford wrote: > I'm operating under the assumption that while viruses for Linux that > spread like Windows viruses are very rare, there are still some out > there. > > So, given that, what level of vigilance is necessary against incoming > viruses in a Linux system?
Viruses for Linux exist, but are rare. E-mail viruses, as per your subject line, don't exist at all (yet). This is because Windows has default settings which will actively run any scripts embedded in HTML mail, which means that as soon as you read your email, that embedded script can run, say, an attached executable with massively destructive capabilities >:] >:] >:] ...Linux has no problems of this sort, for the simple reason that nobody has been stupid enough to write mail clients which are capable of automatically running executables. However, if you have an attachment which is some sort of script, or is a file which takes advantage of a buffer overflow, etc. it could still do damage if you have mailcap settings which will automatically run it or load it into an insecurely buggy program - that latter, however, is extremely unlikel - still, with the zlib buffer problem that was recently discovered, such things are certainly not impossible. So, the rule for Linux is basically the same as for Windows: never view attachments when you don't know the source. But, as to Linux viruses in general: the reason they are so rare is that they are not very effective unless the victim is unusually moronic. Because they can only do damage to things over which the victim has privileges. If you're an average joe-type user, the best it can do is wipe out your particular files. It can't touch anybody elses files, and can't screw up your system, generally speaking. Most of the "viruses" around today aren't really viruses at all - they're trojans, which require the user to run them as root (or at least a very priveleged user). Since root tends to be suspicious (hopefully) of strange programs, such problems are rare indeed. -Micah _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
