A virus or two

[Dotan Cohen]

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 20:56, Doug Robinson <dkrr at telus.net> wrote:
> Hello
>    While browsing at the local electronic toy store the topic of
> Linux arose. The man claimed that his linux system has had two viruses
> find their way into his system in the last year.
>
>    I have not heard much about nor experienced any such attacks on any of
> my linux systems .
>
>    What is the current state of the virus problem on the generic linux
> system and
> should I become concerned enough to actually do something?
>
> Thank you for your time.
>

There are no virus for Linux in the wild, and have not been for years.

There _are_ exploits in the Linux kernel and other software. The most
visible of these for desktop users (really the only one that desktop
users must worry about) are browser exploits that stay in the browser,
such as XSS attacks, infected extensions and infected profiles.

Linux servers, on the other hand, must be much more diligent. There
are tons of ways to exploit a Linux server.


-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com