[GRLUG] Some Viruses Come Pre-Installed

[john-thomas richards]

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 01:56:35PM -0400, john-thomas richards wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 01:27:09PM -0400, Casey DuBois wrote:
> > Am I correct in assuming that MOST of these virus' would not affect Linux systems?
> 
> How could they?  In order to do something bad, a virus must be
> executable.  In order to be executable a virus must be copied to the
> Linux box and made executable (chmod) and then *executed*.  Connecting
> a device to a Linux box is not going to do this, is it?  I do not know
> of a means to do this automatically.  Then again, I do not often ponder
> virus creation, either.

Here is what I meant: Microsoft Windows is designed to automatically
run *programs* on a device that is connected (autorun for a CD, USB
devices, etc.).  If pop a DVD into my drive, Debian starts a movie
viewer to view the content, but if the DVD/CD/USB device has binaries
on them, Debian (Linux in general) does not automatically run the
binaries.  More involvement from the user is required.  As I mentioned
above, I am not aware of a mechanism in Linux that would automatically
run a binary found on a device that is attached to the system.
-- 
john-thomas
------
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year
of discussion.
Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)