[Gllug] Virus on Linux/Mac

[Bruce Richardson]

On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 08:19:26AM +0100, Christopher wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-09-21 at 09:53 +0100, Peter Childs wrote:
> 
> > I'm not so sure, its perfectly possible to write a virus into a
> > Openoffice macro and get it to cause trouble in both Windows, Linux
> > and MacOS. Also could write it to infect Mozillia and effect Firefox,
> > Thunderbird etc etc. might not be able to cause some types of problem
> > but cause cause just as much havoc none the less. Linux is not imune
> > to viruses its just we are not a primary target... yet..... 
> 
> Linux is effectively immune at the OS level (unlike Windows), simply
> because of the permissions structure.  The worst an OOo macro virus is
> going to do is (maybe) corrupt some files in the user's home directory.

No, that isn't the worst.   It should be possible to write a macro virus
that could attempt local exploits on a Linux system.  

> 
> If that macro virus was passed to a Windows machine, it could do
> anything it wanted to, wreaking havoc all the way to the kernel -
> there's no real way of preventing this in Windows.

I'm sorry, but that simply is not true.  Sometimes it seems as if people
who get into this kind of thread have had no Windows experience since
Windows 95.  What you say was true of that but was never true of Windows
NT and all the versions of Windows that Microsoft sell now are descended
from NT.  They all have user-based security and filesystem permissions.
The scenario you describe is only true when the user is logged in as an
administrator.  Of course, this is the default for XP Home Edition...



-- 
Bruce

I object to intellect without discipline.  I object to power without
constructive purpose. -- Spock
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