[GRLUG] Some Viruses Come Pre-Installed

[JD Walsh III]

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.
>   
<rant>
What you say is true. However, I *do* ponder virus creation. Paranoid, 
maybe, but I figure the best defense is a good offense. At this point my 
main concerns with Linux distros are twofold:

1) Trojan Horse programs that a user might be fooled into executing.
2) Files that other programs may use, not realizing that those files 
are, in fact, telling the program to do undesirable things.

The way Linux is designed I think that #2 is clearly the more present 
danger for any Linux distro. Consider what Steve Romanow wrote:
> It would seem that with wine (or cedega, or crossover, all wine-alikes) 
> installed, you may have more exposure than you think.
Tricking wine into running a Windows virus is a perfect example of how 
Linux could be compromised. Other, more likely ones, include exploits in 
such universal programs as Firefox and Thunderbird. (Anyone recall any 
of the warnings regarding GreaseMonkey scripts for Firefox? I think it's 
still an issue.) Or macro viruses. Is there any reason why some hacker 
couldn't write a macro virus for OpenOffice which would compromise 
Linux? Granted, something like that would probably have to target Linux 
specifically, but my point is that we are not invulnerable. This is 
especially true of our internet connections, where we are essentially 
using the same protocols as Windows and every other operating system. My 
router received over 100 Ping of Death attacks in the first three weeks 
of February alone. I don't know about you, but if an attack were to lock 
up my Ethernet card, I wouldn't be much comforted telling myself, "Hey, 
at least my OS is still running."

And don't even get me started on password security...
</rant>

--jd
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