How many virus' affect linux?

10 ............

Yes,thanks.I did and found mostly outdated information and vague answers so that's why I came here.

Someone else may have a better answer, but I did a bit of googling. I found articles from 2005 reporting 7 Linux viruses. I also found an article from 2003 reporting 100 Linux viruses. I only did a brief search so I am sure there is something more recent. The one thing I noticed on the one that reported 100, it was from a company trying to market an anti virus to Linux users.

Viruses are rare in Linux because of how Linux is used. This is probably the reason for the vague information on Linux viruses, there are none that I know of that are wide spread.

The two top (in my opinion) differences in how Linux is used, making the spread of viruses difficult are...

Number one-- most users do not normally run as an administrator in Linux. Where as almost all Windows users run as administrator.
Number two-- The user has to set permissions for a file to be executable in Linux. In Windows the files extension tells the OS that it is executable. Just to name some .exe .com .bat .scr (yes although many users do not realize it .scr is an executable file).

Hope this helps-- not sure in the last part has anything to do with why you asked but thought I would add just in case.

I think that If they were smart, they would market antivirus programs to dual-booters. Since viruses are more of a problem on Windows than linux, accessing the windows partition when windows is offline would enable them to catch rootkits. If they sold a lightweight Linux package that scanned both systems at once, that might sell better, but would cut into the windows anti-virus market.

I don't know..anyway,use clamav and DON'T INSTALL ANTIVIR PE FOR LINUX...i tried this in OpenSuse 10.2 and DESTROYED grub and it wasn't possible to reinstall it !

I was lucky i had done a partimage backup so i restored it
so be carefull !

Bye

Well... we Slackware users do not use Grub by default... we use LILO, so chances are it will be OK to install Antivir PE on Slackware.
Without your full story about what you did during the install of Antivir, and how customized your computer was before you tried this install, I like to take this 'horror' story with a few grains of salt anyway.

As for viruses in Linux, I believe it is more important to maintain the security of the applications that connect you to the Internet. Think about Apache, PHP applications, BIND, your kernel - bugs that can be targeted by hackers if there are known exploits. A virus scanner will not help you here (an IDS would allow for better protection), but keeping your system up to date with your distro's security updates and joining the mailing lists of the outward facing applications you use is what you should do.

Eric

I've heard of only one or two viruses for Linux. But, I think that the viruses only affected a certain version of the kernel ... so really, at any one time, you shouldn't worry about viruses at this point. I would recommend, however, a rootkit checker like rkhunter, and also a firewall, and that you disable services that are not necessary and close as many open ports as possible. See here for more:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...6/#post2912007

Thanks for the replies.Obviously there are not many linux virus'.
I became confused when I looked at a Kaspersky linux virus scanner list.It was very large so it must have been a virus list for windows virus' that are detectable by the Kaspersky linux scanner.

I compiled it from source by as usual:

su
./ configure
make
make install

following the readme instructions but it DESTROYED grub anyway !

Nothing strange..I downloaded some multimedia and graphic programs and updated everything..that's all !

Bye