Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 09:51:09 -1000 (HST) From: "David Langford" <langfod@dihelix.com> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: "McAfee discovers a Linux virus" Possible for *BSD? Message-ID: <199702101951.JAA15126@caliban.dihelix.com>
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Just saw this on a local wire. Is this an ELF thing or could it be more generic? >McAfee discovers a Linux virus > >McAfee just recently discovered a >virus <http://www.mcafee.com/corp/press/020597.html>; >(they're calling it Bliss) for Linux. Apparently refuting the >assumption that Unix OS's aren't vulnerable to viruses. Bliss infects >Linux executable files. Each time it is executed, it overwrites two >more more executable files [possibly found by checking your PATH], >overwriting the first 17,892 bytes of each affected file with its own >code. McAfee quickly released a special update of its VirusScan for >Linux. [Of course, a user must have write permission on an executable >in order to modify it. In most circumstances, only the user's own >executables would be modified. However, if other people use those >executables, then their executables can be affected as well. And if >"root" executes one of those, the virus can spread throughout >the Linux system.] McAfee believes the reason this virus has begun to >spread because more and more Linux users who are playing computer games >over the Internet (such as DOOM) are playing those games as >"root". [McAfee] Hmmmmmm. -David Langford langfod@dihelix.com
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