On Saturday 06 Jul 2013 07:57:38 the wrote: > On 07/06/13 02:21, Dale wrote: > > William Kenworthy wrote: > >> On 06/07/13 04:12, Dale wrote:
> >>> While we was > >>> chatting, he said that Linux is just as prone to getting a virus as > >>> windoze and so is a Mac. I think my laughing let him know I wasn't > >>> buying his comment. Well this is just FUD. Linux and BSDs are much much less prone to virus infection due to their architecture and default authentication restrictions. Also your average Linux user, well at least your average Linux desktop user is more clued up than the MSWindows equivalent. With the advent of Linux to mobile devices (Android) this statement is no longer true. > >> food for thought - some years back a member of the local lug picked up > >> that something was listening on a port that he didn't think should be in > >> use. Turned out to be an infected windows binary running under wine ... > >> > >> I presume he had been using wine and this was left running, rather than > >> self starting. > >> > >> BillK > > > > Well, no Wine here. So that won't happen. Actually, I don't have a > > copy of windoze here at all. Neither of my two rigs have ever had > > windoze installed on them at all. I'm sure some poster in 2003/04 posted in this same list about a MSWindows malware running in Wine. That's indication of good code as far as I'm concerned, because most MSWindows programs that I tried would fall over themselves in Wine! LOL! > > BTW, I have been known to open those attachments before. I usually open > > them with kwrite or something and try to see what is human readable in > > there. Most is machine language but there is usually a small portion > > that is human readable. They sent it and I'm nosy that way. lol > > Perhaps it's easier to use strings? hexdump -C <suspect_payload> You may have to unzip it first, because a lot of malware is zipped to escape detection from some simpler anti-virus checkers. You can also use dd and pipe it to an antivirus to see if it finds anything known. All OS are susceptible to malware, but not all malware are viruses. At least one virus has existed for Linux (in the 90s or early 00s), but it was patched overnight if I remember right. Other than that I don't know of any programs which can be replicated on Linux machines. I think this is because despite Lennart's efforts no two linux OS are exactly the same. So, as the virus is trying to replicate itself it will fall down at the next box it tries to infect. However, rogue add-ons in browsers, increasingly sophisticated JavaScripts, and HTML 5 with all its cross-domain/cross-site-request potential could wreck at least some of your data and steal your information, just as easily as the adjacent MSWindows box. Oh, before I forget, did I mention Java? Linux running on mobile devices is a different category because there is great uniformity of the OS across devices. This is a big target for any malware writers and state actors who value their coding time: http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/04/android-security-hole/ -- Regards, Mick
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