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 ?
Yes. There are lots of things that attack Linux, including various
rootkits (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware for a partial
list). Then try googling "Mayhem" and "Shellshock" (hint: can you say
botnet?)
There are also quite few threats that are not so much Linux-specific as
application-specific. For example there are LOTS of things that attack
Wordpress - I see probes and attacks in my logs by the thousands (daily)
- and managed to get infected at one point. Needless to say, that
installation has been hardened significantly.
And then there are the attacks on the linux derivatives that run on
various network devices like routers and IPMI boxes. (Just what you
want attached to a server, a remote console server that will give up its
password if asked nicely. Also got bit by that - someone launched a
reflection attack against a commercial game server, through one of our
console servers.)
"Linux is naturally secure" is bulls*&t. It's more secure than Windows,
but that's not saying an awful lot.
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
