Linux Spyware Free?

[Cabhan]

The thing is that the areas that can be written to by a user are somewhat limited. So if you practice safe surfing and operation, you should be fine.

On that note, I've been in Linux for a few months now, and use it essentially exclusively (I'll be scaling back Windows to a small partition over the summer, so I can install games to use with WINE). I have yet to experience a single virus / pop-up.

[*DEAD*]

can someone post a link to that linux counter site to show how few people use linux. it must be close to a 1:100 ratio

[MrsPanic]

Whereas Linux asks you to make a regular account from which to actually use the computer, and then asks for the password if you need temporary root privileges, I don't remember Windows even cautioning users against full-on using the admin account for everyday use. You'd think they'd want to, given all of their security holes and issues. Although I think my Mac OS X account is the administrator, it asks for my password before it installs anything.

My parents' Windows PC is absolutely infested with spyware because my dad surfs the internet so much, and much of it I can't get off even *with* the spyware removers. I tried to switch them to Firefox for web browsing, but I can't get it to function correctly when it comes to the e-mail button in the toolbar. It writes in Outlook Express but wants to read in AOL, which is completely not right. No one on the Firefox forums seemed to have any idea why either.

Maybe if I can get their account off of the admin privileges and help them learn how to switch when they need to install something, that will work better. Does Windows do what Linux does (and Mac OS X for that matter) and ask for the password when it's needed?

[jaboua]

I actually don't think so... I beleve it just say you don't have the priveliges to do that... Actually, I could innstall anyway as long as I created a new folder on C:\ instead of the systemfolders...

[Workaphobia]

Personally, i don't buy into the opinion that Linux is not capable of having Spyware installed (anything is possible)

Once a virus or cracker has found a way into your system, anything is possible, just like under windows. However, it is a lot harder for someone to crack a linux box than a windows box. This is because the windows architecture makes the naive assumption that it can trust any incoming commands (just look at ActiveX in IE, and macros in Office), whereas the linux/unix philosophy is designed to thrive in a world of untrusted users and networks.

Rootkits are the equivalent of virii for Linux. There is software that can detect common kinds of rootkits, however there is no way to know for certain whether a machine has been disinfected or not, without wiping the harddrive. This applies to windows as well, but windows hackers aren’t as clever - I think.

[jaboua]

For more info about the rootkits Workaphobia mentioned, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

[Salient]

With technology like CoLinux, Codeweavers, and Trans-gaming emerging the line between Windows and Linux seems to be narrowing. Anybody have a bet on when the first Trojan/virus/rootkit/spyware will appear that works on both platforms?

http://www.colinux.org/
http://www.codeweavers.com
http://www.transgaming.com/

[variant]

There are viruses for linux and applications such as realplayer have some elements that some would consider to be spyware.. clamAV (the linux version is ideal for scanning windows shares) will allso detect all spyware as it is considerd an equal threat as a virus. there are worms for linux but typicaly they require shell access to the system and are used to gain root access and typicaly dont self propogate. there are no known viruses that currently target linux that have not been patched against a long time ago.

to say that linux is not targetet is because its not popular is mostly wrong. one prime target for viruses is surly the web server, a market that linux and open source has a large section of allready.
Surely there will be greater threats to linux as its popularity does increase on the desktop but the dynamic nature of opensource has proved to be the best way to combat these threats.

[MrsPanic]

Perhaps another reason why Linux is not affected by viruses or worms might be because the people who write the viruses and worms are Linux users themselves and don't want to prey on their own kind...

[techieMoe]

Perhaps another reason why Linux is not affected by viruses or worms might be because the people who write the viruses and worms are Linux users themselves and don't want to prey on their own kind...

Although this is plausible, I don't think it's wise to maintain the stereotype that Linux users are malicious coders. Most of the prevalent viruses and worms in MS Windows could not have been designed in Linux because Microsoft themselves will not make development tools available for Visual Basic or ActiveX (their most commonly exploited frameworks) available on Linux.

Educated software developers (which IMO constitute the VAST majority of Linux users/developers) do not write malicious code. Most malicious programs are written by relatively inexperienced or otherwise immature people who want to cause mischief or "get back" a some entity that supposedly wronged them (read this article for a laugh about that).