

A history of viruses on Linux - Garbage
http://www.neowin.net/news/a-history-of-viruses-on-linux

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burgerbrain
Obligatory: <http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/evilmalware.html>

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eru
The installation would be much easier, if they used a package manager.

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bediger
This article leaves unasked the real question: Why doesn't linux attract the
plague of malware that Windows does
([http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/13/malware_threat_lansc...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/13/malware_threat_lanscape/))?

Sure, Windows runs most of the desktop computers, but it even attracts more
malware proportionately than Macs do. Linux runs a goodly proportion of the
"high value" server installations, so you'd think that would make linux worms
(at least) a lot more valuable than Windows worms.

So, does anybody have any pointers about this real question?

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loup-vaillant
Easy: GNU/Linux system are vastly less vulnerable than Windows systems, for at
least 2 reasons. (1) Their users tend to actually know how computers work.
Therefore they are far less vulnerable to mind attacks (such as
hot_chick.jpg.exe). (2) They are more up to date. This is partly a consequence
of 1 (users care about security patches), and of "piracy" (illegitimates
copies of Windows tend to not be updated frequently).

Also, there are many GNU/Linux distributions out there. So, a security breach
on one system may not be there on another. Plus, the virus has to be portable.

Anyway, this focus on viruses is probably misleading: GNU/Linux systems _are_
attacked. Regularly. For instance, any new machine with an ssh login will log
more than 500 login attempts a day before the end of the first week. Those
attacks may just not attempt to install a virus. They do some other
"interesting" stuff, though, like adding a web page at
www.yoursite.com/secret-loc/gimme-credit-card-number.html, or sending spam.

~~~
bediger
Someone "caught" one of those SSH scans recently. It's the "Chuck NOrris"
botnet, which apparently runs on MIPS-based DSL, wireless routers:
<http://www.muni.cz/ics/research/cyber/files/chuck_norris.pdf>

That's not exactly the tidal wave of viruses, trojans, BHOs, worms, etc that
Windows gets. Even supposing an 'attach' from a Chuck Norris botnetted router
suceeded in guessing a user ID and password via SSH, the MIPSEL code wouldn't
run on your x86 or x86_84 linux box.

You can still download the code that guy got: <http://safu.stream-
portal.org/pwnd.tgz>

Also, the "fractured" nature of the Linux software base comes to its rescue,
eh? No strength in monoculture here?

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LordLandon
_Later a worm by the name of Cheese came out that actually closed the
backdoors created by the Ramen virus._

Best part.

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anon420
Avast found a virus in your link.

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dfox
according to linked article, avast marks occurences of certain sourceforge.net
URL as virus. Which certainly shows something about all these "anti-virus"
match-substrings-contained-by-known-threats "solutions".

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maeon3
This brand of toaster is better than the others because it is 10 times harder
to make toast than the other brands. It is 10 times harder for an evil person
to come into my house and make toast.

