Well, there’s been an interestng turn up for the books. Kaspersky Labs has been trumpted about a new virus that infects both Linux and Windows, called Virus.Linux.Bi.A.
Now the interesting thing is that things is purely a supposed proof of concept, no need for such alarm bells yet, though Kaspersky is a Microsoft partner, so on Redmond’s past form who knows?
Now, some caveats:
- Firstly the code can only run as the local user, with no elevated priviledges, as it would on a Windows system, so the potential damage is limited.
- For such a thing to work on Linux, the user would have to download and then execute the program, no fancy automatic scripting here.
- Setting the default file creation permissions to exclude the the ‘x’ bit on any of the octets would help guard against that as well. Obviously it’s not a total cure, with sufficient social engineering, the user could still be conned into running the file.
Admittedly, Linux isn’t perfect and I’ve no doubt that there will eventually be more serious malware. But on a technical level, the O/S doesn’t have half the avenues for potential infection as I hope I’ve helped show above, I know where I’d rather be!
kurt wismer says:
frankly, i’ve seen the news reports of this virus and i think the label FUD is undeserving… they have not spread fear (they say the virus isn’t a threat), they don’t create uncertainty as the reports i’ve seen are quite clear and consistent, and they don’t create doubt except perhaps in those poor misguided souls who were still suffering under the delusion that linux was immune to viruses…
12 April 2006, 2:57 amablokecalledbloke says:
You’re right, I guess I’ve grown so used to seeing FUD that labelling things like that is an automatic reflex.
I’ve never seens a system that was immune to viruses, besides all of the safeguards could be undone by clever social engineering, the weakest link is and always has been the user.
12 April 2006, 8:25 am