Newbie still confused about potential for virus problems on Ubuntu

[Yoram Hekma]

On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 07:18:33PM +0200, Amedee Van Gasse (ubuntu) wrote:
> Ed Oneill schreef:
> 
> > What is the chances of virus problem on ubuntu 8.10 if used to surf 
> > web, open e-mail and fileshare with transmission?
> 
> None.
> 
> > Am I correct thinking the Ubuntu os is not in danger
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > only a windows based system I would interact with is at risk
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > and that is the reason to use virus scanners?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > Has anyone useing Ubuntu had virus issues
> 
> No.
> 
> > and how would you know what are some of the possible problems if they
> > exist ?
> 
> Windows viruses cannot infect Linux.
> 
> The very few Linux viruses that do exist, are not in the wild. Anyway
> the design of Linux makes it very hard for viruses to propagate. You'd
> have to run as root all the time. And since Ubuntu has no root...
> 
> You should be more scared of browser exploits like cross-site scripting
> or clickjacking, than of Linux viruses.
> 

Well, you do not need root access to do harm. Things like saved passwords
in browser cache, passwords for games like WOW (should be somewere in your
.wine dir right?) and the like are interesting as well. Nowadays virus
creators aren't that interested in trashing your system anyway (and you
would need root access for that). Maybe you aren't very vulnarable to
viruses in the traditional sense, but you should still exercise caution
when dealing with uncontrolled environments (ie the internet).

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/6229 is an interesting read.

Before I get flamed, I understand that this is not really about viruses,
and probably is hard to intercept by "scanners" like Clamav, but I just
felt like sharing this:)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 197 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20090427/fb3a55e6/attachment.sig>