On Sat, 14 Nov 1998, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Nov 1998, Neil Moore-Smith wrote:
> > I never hear of viruses in the Linux (or Unix generally) world. There used
> > to be the Internet Worm, but mostly, the only attacks I hear about are
> > security exploits, holes in sendmail etc.
> > Are there any Linux viruses? I would have thought that the availability of
> > the source code would have been a real boon to the sad individuals who
> > write these things. Are there anti-virus tools?
> Not really; these individuals only understand 8088 and, less frequently, 68000
> assembly language. :)
<snip>
There's a reported *NIX "virus" of olden days, which was very cleverly
written. It was encapsulated into the "login" program, so when a certain
user logged in, it gave them root access, whether or not they actually had
an account on the box. The roots of the virus were actually in the
compiler, and when the compiler saw it was making login it would add the
code. Of course, there was also code so that if the compiler saw it was
making itself (IE, the source lines were found and removed), it would
re-add the code, thusly it was a kind-of "virus".
Don't know the truth behind this, just remember reading about it in "The
Hacker's Dictionary" :>
---
Steve Huston - Rowan University Comp Sci Major
New Jersey, USA
PGP Public keys:
DSS/DH 0x0A529FF8 fp: C38F 274B F2A8 CE5A 60A5 A8E9 C7B9 AEDD 0A52 9FF8
RSA 0xC373028D fp: ADE0 854D 753E EB53 9DFA 5F04 8283 CC99
"And no one sings me lullabies,
and no one makes me close my eyes;
And so I throw the windows wide
and call to you across the sky" --Pink Floyd, "Echoes"
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