From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 5 21:31:54 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5BF3716A4CE for ; Mon, 5 Jul 2004 21:31:54 +0000 (GMT) Received: from bilbo.otenet.gr (bilbo.otenet.gr [195.170.0.13]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 990D943D58 for ; Mon, 5 Jul 2004 21:31:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from gothmog.gr (patr530-a194.otenet.gr [212.205.215.194]) i65LVkrM007748 for ; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 00:31:50 +0300 Received: from gothmog.gr (gothmog [127.0.0.1]) by gothmog.gr (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i65L8IbA004948 for ; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 00:08:18 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from giorgos@localhost) by gothmog.gr (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) id i65L8H0u004947; Tue, 6 Jul 2004 00:08:17 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 00:08:17 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Phil Schulz Message-ID: <20040705210817.GB4560@gothmog.gr> References: <20040705162320.11141.qmail@web51604.mail.yahoo.com> <40E99786.5000005@gmx.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <40E99786.5000005@gmx.de> cc: Mark Jayson Alvarez cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A few simple questions(...if you don't mind) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 21:31:54 -0000 On 2004-07-05 20:01, Phil Schulz wrote: > Mark Jayson Alvarez wrote: > >2. Do you know if viruses exist in freebsd, like in Windows? > > I believe there used to be some viri for Unix-like OSs, but they are all > pretty much harmless since they aren't usually found 'in the wild'. > A quick search on www.viruslibrary.com gave me one match [1] - maybe > someone else can comment that. A lot of the links of the Unix virus page fail with 404. One that works is, I'm afraid, hilarious in its lack of detail and vagueness. : Linux.Diesel : : This is a relatively harmless, non-memory resident parasitic : virus. It searches for Linux executable files in system directories : and subdirectories, then writes itself to the middle of the : file. Before searching files, the virus reads its code from the host : file. It moves the original bytes to the end of the file and : increases the size of the previous section. Nobody said I'd give permission to anyone to write to my files. How would that ever happen? I don't work as root, most of the time: : giorgos@gothmog:~$ ac -p : sysop 24.27 : giorgos 221.31 : root 0.00 : total 245.59 : giorgos@gothmog:~$ The `sysop' user is exactly the same as `root' with GNU bash as the login shell. The `root' user still has tcsh(1) as usual, and has obviously remained unused for months. I don't see how a Linux virus like Linux.Diesel whose distribution and infection methods are (carefully?) kept secret would be able to mess with my files. Remember, this is not Windows, where everything is free and you have to share your personal data with the world :P In short, I've heard of no viruses that affect BSDs during the last 7-8 years that I'm using a BSD Unix at home and work. - Giorgos