Timeline for The myths about malware in Unix / Linux
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2010 at 14:56 | comment | added | fschmitt | For the one (McAfee) I mentioned, this is just not correct. The claim: "Always-on protection for Linux systems McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Linux keeps viruses and other malware off Linux systems with a scalable and easy to manage solution." Note that I don't recommend this software or any AV protection on Linux at all. However such software exists. | |
| Oct 17, 2010 at 3:19 | comment | added | xenoterracide | echox is correct. AV software for linux, isn't really there to protect the linux system itself. it's there to scan files that linux is serving. Which is why most of these AV's only look at files they are directed to scan, instead of any file that's accessed or changes on the system. | |
| Oct 14, 2010 at 21:40 | comment | added | echox | Most of the time this software runs on mail and fileservers which would make sense. | |
| Oct 14, 2010 at 8:35 | comment | added | wzzrd | McAfee's Antivirus for Linux is probably only use by companies that have 'all machines must run antivirus policy' and are unable to formulate exceptions :P | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 20:40 | comment | added | Warren Young | PCs achieved clear platform dominance right around 1988. The tallest nail gets pounded, then as today. | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 18:19 | comment | added | user732 | I have to differ with the "user base is pretty small" reason. The first really wide-spread PC virus was "Brain", in 1988. Surely Linux in 2010 has more desktop users than MS-DOS did in 1988. Why doesn't linux have more viruses, indeed, why doesn't it have a widespread "Brain" virus? | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 13:43 | comment | added | Warren Young | No, the worst scenario is complete system compromise. The kernel folk just closed a huge hole in the kernel about six weeks ago that would let any GUI program escalate their privileges to root level. Do a little Googling around, and you'll find other past holes of this nature. It's true that Linux has better security in a lot of ways compared to Windows, but like any other code base of millions of lines of code, you can be sure there are other holes in it waiting to be found. I, too, would advocate keeping systems patched rather than antivirus, but keep your head out of the sand, too. | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 10:24 | vote | accept | Stefan | ||
| Nov 12, 2010 at 5:39 | |||||
| Oct 5, 2010 at 9:41 | comment | added | phunehehe | haha unless you get the virus as root :) | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 9:16 | comment | added | Patkos Csaba | I would like just to add that even if you manage to get a virus (in my 10 years of Linux I never seen one) the worst scenario is that your user folder will be compromised. | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 9:10 | history | answered | fschmitt | CC BY-SA 2.5 |