[expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Jason
Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
Thus spake Kikta LCpl Jason M ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Viruses are *much* harder to write for properly written OSes, i.e those in which there is protection for the boot sector, OS files etc. In order to infect a linux system you'd basically have to be running as root, which sensible people only do when absolutely necessary. Given that currently the largest (and fastest-growing) group of viruses are Word macro viruses, this is an excellent reason for hoping that MS never port Word to linux, although even then you;d probably only be able to infect your own userid. Which is not to say that linux viruses are impossible, but there is little incentive to produce one when you know that 99% of systems would not get caught. And 99% of MS systems would...:-) -- |Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept. | Music does not have to be understood| |Camosun College, Victoria, BC, Canada| It has to be listened to. | |email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | |phone: +1 250 370 4452 | Hermann Scherchen. |
Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
On Fri, Aug 04, 2000 at 12:06:12PM -0400, Kikta LCpl Jason M wrote: This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. What do you mean by anti-virus? If you mean, anti-Linux virus: as far as I know, very few if any Linux viri have been found in the wild, and your best protection against them is good security and good security habits. If you mean, and anti-virus program that runs on Linux but scans for Windows viri, Fsecure makes one. It is very useful for "staging" downloads or in a Samba environment. It does not find trojans, though. -- -- C^2 No windows were crashed in the making of this email. Looking for fine software and/or web pages? http://w3.trib.com/~ccurley PGP signature
Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
Kikta LCpl Jason M wrote: This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Jason Jason, Try:http://linuxberg.linuxwired.net/conhtml/sys_scanners.html Of course this is but one of many sites!!! Regards
Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
There is an AVP (Antiviral Toolkit Pro) antivirus version for linux. You can visit www.avp.com for more information. There is available a trial version from ftp://ftp.avp.com/pub/avp30linux.tgz Erramu. This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Jason ___ Consigue tu e-mail gratuito TERRA.ES Haz click en http://www.terra.es/correo/
RE: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
amavis.org -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Marc Handelman Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 11:46 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux Kikta LCpl Jason M wrote: This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Jason Jason, Try:http://linuxberg.linuxwired.net/conhtml/sys_scanners.html Of course this is but one of many sites!!! Regards
Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
- Original Message - From: "Deryk Barker" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 12:27 PM Subject: Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux Thus spake Kikta LCpl Jason M ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Viruses are *much* harder to write for properly written OSes, i.e those in which there is protection for the boot sector, OS files etc. In order to infect a linux system you'd basically have to be running as root, which sensible people only do when absolutely necessary. Given that currently the largest (and fastest-growing) group of viruses are Word macro viruses, this is an excellent reason for hoping that MS never port Word to linux, although even then you;d probably only be able to infect your own userid. Which is not to say that linux viruses are impossible, but there is little incentive to produce one when you know that 99% of systems would not get caught. And 99% of MS systems would...:-) -- It's not a stupid question. It's just a confusing topic. In a narrow sense, there is no known *nix virus "in the wild" although I have heard of some in "laboratory environments", whatever that means. It seems more a matter of terminology and nit-picking over what the definition of what a virus is. There are root exploits for *nix systems and the system operator doesn't have to be running as root at the time of "infection". Since root exploits give the intruder root permissions, the compromised machine can launch attacks against other machines or "root" them also and spread that way, pretty much what Joe Public would call a virus.The average person would perceive a root exploit as a "virus", just as they don't understand the distinction between a "hacker" and a "cracker". There are malicious programs that exist in the *nix world, but many seem to only trash the users workspace and so are considered somehow OK to sysadmins since the malicious programs don't bring the entire system down (the individual user would likely disagree about the importance, however). Because of the way each OS is structured, the approach to attacks on MS machines and *nix machines differ. MS exploits get more publicity because of the much larger installed base. Because of the way the MS system is designed, there seem to be many more opportunities to exploit them. Due to their closed development, much more difficult to audit and fix. Because there are so many installed systems, it is more difficult to apply the fix to them all. Because of the sheer numbers of installations, they are easier and more desirable targets (bigger bang for the buck, so to speak). There are virus scanning programs for *nix systems, IIRC, but they are usually focused on scanning email for MS viruses so as to not further propagate them. Yet, I have heard some sysadmins claim not to care about propagating Windows viruses since "we don't use Windows". As a regular *nix user, you should not need to be concerned about viruses, just make certain you always back up important data. As the administrator of your own system, you should be aware of system security to defend against root exploits on your machine. Hoyt
Re: [expert] Anti-Virus for Linux
Best thing is don't run as root. Other than that, go to www.linuxberg.com and you can do a search for antivirus programs there. There are some. Mike This may be a stupid question, but are there any anti-virus programs avalible for Linux? I've looked but never found any and never seem to even hear mention of any. Is it necessary? If not, why? Thanks. Jason
