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Topic: DSL & Viruses, Is DSL immune to viruses?

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Panes XP

Group: Members
Posts: 6
Joined: Sep. 2006

Posted: Oct. 22 2006,17:34

When booting DSL from CD is there any chance either a virus, malicious spyware app or key logger could get into the RAM?

The BBC did an investigation and put a Windows machine online, on average, it was hit by a potential security assault every 15 minutes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5414502.stm

How do you think DSL would perform under these tests?

Thanks in advance.

mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Oct. 22 2006,19:19

You can't compare any Linux system to Windows, because so far there have been very close to zero effective viruses written to run on Linux. Some say this is simply because Linux is a tiny percentage of computer users, making it worthless to invest the time and effort into writing a virus for it. Others say it is mainly because file permissions in the typical Linux system make a virus virtually incapable of doing serous harm to the system (as long as you do not log in as root).

Whatever the reason, Linux machines are still basically immune to virus attacks at this time. Spyware I couldn't tell you about, beyond the fact that if you're running as a limited user the only place the spyware could be installed is within your home directory, which should be fairly noticeable. There's always the chance of installing bundled spyware, but the chance of that is slim if you stick with well-known open source projects.

Also, you might consider that DSL by default runs with all ports closed to remote connections. (maybe one or two exceptions?)

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http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

setecio

Group: Members
Posts: 89
Joined: Nov. 2006

Posted: April 13 2007,22:53

Quote (mikshaw @ Oct. 22 2006,20:19)

Also, you might consider that DSL by default runs with all ports closed to remote connections. (maybe one or two exceptions?)

Does that mean a firewall isn't really necessary for dsl (for a typical domestic user)

curaga

Group: Members
Posts: 2163
Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: April 14 2007,09:27

That means there is no program listening to those ports, but they seem alive. Firewall would be good....
rc.firewall from mydsl is good

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There's no such thing as life. Those mean little jocks invented it ;)
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Windows is not a virus. A virus does something!

torp

Group: Members
Posts: 172
Joined: July 2005

Posted: April 16 2007,15:03

DSL is pretty safe right out of the box. fact is, linux doesn't present much of a target for malicious code. just not enough marketshare, and the systems these people want to take down usually don't run linux. besides, winblows is such a nice big fat target, with hundreds of security holes, dozens of new ones opened every day, why bother with linux. there have been several linux based viruii, mostly proof-of-concept stuff, but nothing to really endanger our systems. since i run a wireless network at home, that includes a winblows machine i use the hardware firewall built into my router, and wpa to protect things, and my DSL machine is afforded protection in this way. for me this is more than enough protection...

torp

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8 replies since Oct. 22 2006,17:34

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