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Re: Spyware / Adware



Greetings!

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:17:22 +0200 (MEST) "Martin Fries"
<martinfries@gmx.de> wrote:
> I´m not an expert. Just a normal user. But I think Linux is vulnerable
> like any other OS.

Yes and no. When surfing as normal user *ware programs cannot install
themselves as system services or overwrite programs simply as you/they
do not have the (file) permissions to do so.

You either have to install them explicitly (manually) as root/admin or
you have to explicitly save them and subsequently start them via shell =
command line. As this is ackward, unattractive to the normal user, the
risk of inadvertly executing such a program is considerably lower than
under Windows("klick on the attachment" type of attacks).

Plus there is no such thing as the standard Microsoft remote virus
installation tools (IE and Outlook) that come with such great *ware
support technologies as ActiveX.



> install an configure :) a firewall

Better: install your workstation so it does not have services running
you don't need. Or bind them to the local / loopback interface so they
are unreachable for an attacker. This renders a firewall unnecessary in
most cases.


> don´t work as root (Administrator)
!!! sic !!!

Bye

Volker Tanger
ITK Security



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