Renaud (Ron) OLGIATI wrote:
On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 19:33:17 +0100 Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:On Thu 20 Aug 2015 at 20:24:16 +0200, Diogene Laerce wrote:Hello guys. I wanted to know if antivirus is required for Debian or for linux in general. And if it is required, what are the recommended antivirus for Debian? Thank you in advance.Required no, advised I guess.You guessed wrong.Although I know that proof-of-concept viruses (virii ?) have been created in computer labs, has anyone seen one alive in the wild ?
Yes. There are lots of things that attack Linux, including various rootkits (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware for a partial list). Then try googling "Mayhem" and "Shellshock" (hint: can you say botnet?)
There are also quite few threats that are not so much Linux-specific as application-specific. For example there are LOTS of things that attack Wordpress - I see probes and attacks in my logs by the thousands (daily) - and managed to get infected at one point. Needless to say, that installation has been hardened significantly.
And then there are the attacks on the linux derivatives that run on various network devices like routers and IPMI boxes. (Just what you want attached to a server, a remote console server that will give up its password if asked nicely. Also got bit by that - someone launched a reflection attack against a commercial game server, through one of our console servers.)
"Linux is naturally secure" is bulls*&t. It's more secure than Windows, but that's not saying an awful lot.
Miles Fidelman -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra