I'm intrigued because I've seen people claim that "linux is just as vulnerable as windows to user stupidity," but I have a hard time understanding how. The vast majority of windows infections occur because somebody got tricked into running an executable file.
On every Linux distro I've used, scripts and binaries need the executable bit set or be explicitly run through the desired shell. As far as I know, no browser sets the executable bit on downloads. To run scripts, you need to know what you're doing.
Now,
curl http://... | sudo sh
is an entirely different problem. As are remote execution vulnerabilities in the kernel. As are adding random package manager repositories found on internet forums. But all seem a bit more technically involved than opening an executable file with a .pdf extension.
I'm intrigued because I've seen people claim that "linux is just as vulnerable as windows to user stupidity," but I have a hard time understanding how. The vast majority of windows infections occur because somebody got tricked into running an executable file.
On every Linux distro I've used, scripts and binaries need the executable bit set or be explicitly run through the desired shell. As far as I know, no browser sets the executable bit on downloads. To run scripts, you need to know what you're doing.
Now,
is an entirely different problem. As are remote execution vulnerabilities in the kernel. As are adding random package manager repositories found on internet forums. But all seem a bit more technically involved than opening an executable file with a .pdf extension.