Avast antivirus for linux

[Felipe Figueiredo]

On Wed 23 Apr 2008 15:11:34 Derek Broughton wrote:
> Felipe Figueiredo wrote:
>>
> > Besides, an important security point is to have the least ammount of
> > code running, so if antivirus is not needed, you shouldn't use it,
> > since it would need severe priviledge
>
> Why?  I don't run any antivirus software, so I could easily be missing
> something but surely it _needs_ to run only on interfaces to the
> outside world - so it checks my mail as I download it (which it can do
> as either the mail user or the recipient), it checks files loaded from
> the web (which would have to be as the browser user), and it checks
> removable media (again, as the user who mounts it).  I wouldn't be
> surprised if such software often does run with "severe privilege" but
> it certainly shouldn't be necessary.

Because as I understand them (and I might be wrong about this), antivirus 
software are not expected to run with read-only rights, because it would 
need to modify ("clean", in the original computer virus definition) or 
quarantine any arbitrary file in the system, that might get compromised 
(which is about any file at all, if the extant-linux-virus hypothesis is 
right). Maybe it doesn't need *root* priviledges, but certainly more 
priviledge than ordinary accounts. At least in the MSWindows context, 
this is what happens, right?

Also, I was not talking about simply emails viri, but linux viri in fact. 
This is what I am referring to a non-threat, so far.

regards
FF