Re: Antivirus for Debian
On Thursday 20 August 2015 20:50:43 Miles Fidelman wrote:
> 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.
The question wasn't about security in general, when no-one is totally secure.
But about viruses specifically. They are low risk on a Linux box.
Lisi
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