Hello guys!

I have Windows 7 in dualboot. And I was wondering is there any malware for Windows out there that when being run in Windows can corrupt data on GNU/Linux partition? Because even though there is no access to ext4 data on Linux partition, HDD is still physically connected to motherboard thus can be accessed on a low-level from Windows.

And the second question is about Windows bootkits - can they damage/modify Linux loaders like Grub/Lilo/Syslinux?

So yeah, these are 2 questions that bother me.

I haven't heard of any malware that does this, but it stands to reason that if low level drive access is available that it could damage a Linux partition. Say for example, it tries to hide itself by writing to a supposedly unused portion, as in not used by Windows, of the disk and it just happens to corrupt your boot image? Again, while possible, I doubt that this is something that in practice is worth worrying about. Just make backups of important information just like you would to guard against a hardware failure of the drive. Second, even if it were to damage something, Linux is far more forgiving than Windows in terms of boot to a CD and mount the rest of the media to get at the information.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by bootkits, but generally speaking anything Windows related that involves writing data to the boot sector will remove the Linux boot loader for your convenience, requiring you to reinstall it.

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I think he means boot virus or rootkits. Either way the basic answer remains. It is possible that any malware could be written to affect even non-readable filesystems and other areas not normally available to the OS.

Is there much worry? I don't think so. It can happen and maybe it has happened before. The rules to best practices are always the same. Learn and use as many as you can to avoid this. A well run system is less likely to be affected by malware.

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