Good anti-virus programs for Linux

[Derek Martin]

On Sat, 28 Aug 1999, Jerry Feldman wrote:

> John Chambers Wrote:
> > Jerry Feldman writes:
> > Of course, those running linux on an Alpha  or  SPARC  or  any  other
> > non-Intel hardware probably don't need to worry for a while.
> I disagree with this. This is certainbly true in the case where the virus 
> is an Intel binary. But, what if the virus is a script, or even part ov a 
> Java byte code.  Remember that the Internet worm back in 1988 travelled 
> through many different Unix systems. No system is imune.
> 
> Jerry Clabaugh wrote:
> > http://www.cyber.com/papers/plausibility.html

There's still the matter of obtaining root privilege in order to
propogate.  Unix security has come a long way since RJM Jr.'s worm
infected a gazillion systems across the net.  I'm not saying it's
impossible...

The same principals apply to Linux as to windows... if the binary (or
script or macro etc.) you're about to run didn't come from a reputable
source (And I'm not talking about the mail you got from your brother,
unless he wrote the CODE to the binary himself), don't run it. And
definitely don't run it as root. I've been computing for 17 years and I
have never had a virus on any of my systems. And I've never used virus
software on a regular basis.

I'd be a lot more worried about someone including malicious code in an
"update" to say, the ftpd daemon, and installing it before someoen had a
chance to look at it.  But since I rarely install new software that's just
come out, excepting the Linux kernel, I'm not too woried about that
either.


Derek D. Martin   |  UNIX System Administrator
derek at netria.com  |  dmartin at lancity.com

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