[Gllug] Virus on Linux/Mac

[Christopher Currie]

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:58:21 +0100 Caroline Ford wrote:

> The gksu popup doesn't mention the name of the OS.

The previous poster had supposed that it did; in my ignorance I assumed he was 
right.

> It says something 
> like
>
> "This application requires administrative privileges to run. "

Now I've checked, I see it actually says 'Enter your password to perform 
administrative tasks', which is slightly different [why do I want to perfom 
administrative tasks at this point?] and then says "the 
application '<application name>' lets you modify essential parts of your 
system"; under Kubuntu KDE su doesn't point that out, but it clearly flags 
the prvileged application name as a "command'.

If you haven't typed the command it's going to look even odder than the wrong 
OS name.  

And if you're using Kubuntu, the Gnome gksu window is unexpected and 
unfamiliar, which should make you even more attentive to what it says.

I agree that people who never read what they see will be in trouble. But my 
main point - which was that the virus would soon be spotted - I think stands.
>
> Ubuntu always chooses usability above security. I don't know whether it
> is any different on its server edition.

Not as bad as some other distros (see below).

On  Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:43:52 +0100 Chris Jones  wrote:
>
> that's perfect Linux world. Real Linux world is different:
>
> http://www.warp2search.net/linux-2-6-22-7-s33701.html

And on the page, just below the kernel announcement, is a link to an (old) 
review of Puppy 2.02 (a very old version now)  -in which you run as root all 
the time, and which does not require *any* passwords for installing stuff; 
and the review ends:

"we plan on running Puppy side-by-side with Ubuntu for a very long time."

Let's hope their Ubuntu doesn't get chewed up...

Of course a Puppy virus would have to be specially compiled for it.
>The price of security is eternal vigilence.

Vigilance, even.

All best,

Christopher
-- 
Christopher Currie	ccurrie at usa.net

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug