I don't know how feasible this is, but if somehow you managed to execute a virus, could it then turn around and use a local root exploit to gain all access to the system, and fsck your system, and then replicate (or vice-versa.)

ok, but even with that, every distro is different, and a RPM for one distro might not work for all RPM enabled distros. Now when you look at linux's market share (under 5%) and then you cut out all distros that that virus wont work on (probably near 80%) you come to a virus that works on 1% of the computers in the world (and thats generous)
(also, the virus writer would have to be carefull that a dependency check wouldnt fail )

and about local root exploits, with the stagering ammount of production quality kernels in existance (average of 30 per major release; 2.0, 2.2 ...) im no kernel hacker but im assuming that it would be a little more than hard to get a universally usable root exploit. not to mention that exploit fixes are extrodinarily quick to come into production.

Unless the virus is polymorphic.

But that would be a tad bulky and easy to trace.

This is something I'm particularly interested/concerned about. There seems to a large amount of software "out there" but how do I know it'll be safe to install? How do you know which are trusted sources (is there a good list of trusted sources somewhere)?

i dont on my workstations, but on my e-mail server i use clamAV

Yep...Bitdefender.com Great Linux virus checker, command line only, but smoking HOT!

BROse
U812

I noticed alot of people using the words viri or virii. However, the plural of virus is viruses. There isn't a Latin plural of virus, and besides, who speaks Latin?! But back to the topic, No I don't use any antivirus on my computer. Not in Linux anyways.

Nice app, i may use it for my own LMC Linux Media Center. If its going to work... (please help me at the Linux From Scratch forum, the message with /tools/bin/bash not found) Its handy for computo-noobies to not let them handle virus problems LMC is actually made for experts AND noobies unlike other distro's :P

Cya - Dazjorz

where's the "I don't use anti-virus and never did in windows either" option

Actually, besides a few weak Windows viruses, I haven't gotten a virus since my MS/DOS 5 days. I still have nightmares about the FORM.A virus. Man, they don't make viruses like they used to.

you know what I think is strange...

Viruses are mostly to annoy people that do not know how to get 'em away. Experts know exactly how to delete them, so viruses are kinda only for computer newbies.

But there are no computer newbies on linux! Only (normal to) expert people use linux. So why do people make viruses that will only annoy experts, but only for a small time... ?!

you shouldn't GET a virus if you don't download junk.

DaZ,

I havent thought of it like that before. When ever I go back to my parents' house, and I have to use the devil's OS, I am always amazed at how much CRAP is on it. Popups all over the place, trying to disguise themselves as dialog boxes. Viruses that don't do anything! They just sit there and throw IE windows open and take up CPU time. I think viruses are simply annoying for several reasons. One reason is because operating systems are getting more and more secure. On top of that, more people are installing firewalls, especially after SP2. More households are getting more then one computer, or they share their connection with a game system. This requires a NAT router, and they typically have cheap firewalls.

Who wants to make a virus to steal information from a crappy Windows Home Edition anyways? If they don't have virus protection installed, there is probably nothing interesting on it. If they do, the protection is too hard to break into. Good programmers have better uses for their time anyways. All the left over, bad programmers, know how to write ridiculous apps that throw IE ads up and change your active desktop.

Enough Rambling...

Llama

a friend of mine accidently formatted his hard disk and i reinstalled windows Xp for him from his official recovery cd...then within minutes of going online the antivirus started screaming it has detected the abot virus or something...i fail to understand, i am pretty sure that nothing was downloaded only SP2 was installed from a magazine Cd...can a virus execute itself from the browser? thats how secure windows xp sp2 is...

Well I meant that SP2 is secure..... As far as a M$ workstation OS goes. Compared to any other leading OS, Windows is should be called Doors... BackDoors.