Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 12:45:58 -0500 From: He Who Urges Ampersands <arensb@cfar.umd.edu> To: corellg@polarnet.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: viruses Message-ID: <199603291746.MAA00351@sparta.cfar.umd.edu> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 29 Mar 1996 06:54:22 PST." <199603291454.GAA21368@freefall.freebsd.org>
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From: "Gary B. Corell" <corellg@204.119.24.203> Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 22:43:49 -0900 (AKST) > Subject: viruses > > Howdy All: > Big question. My son just got hit by a virus on his dos partition. He > asked me if there were any virus checkers for FreeBSD? I haven't heard of > anything here on questions. The good news is that viruses aren't a problem in the Unix world. The bad news is that there are other things to worry about. The reason viruses are such a problem in the PC/Mac world is that DOS and MacOS have no concept of users: every program can potentially grab control of the machine and do whatever it likes. Under Unix, users are protected from each other: if the system is working properly, and permissions on my files are set up correctly, nothing you (as an ordinary user) do will allow you to overwrite my files, or trash the disk, or whatever. If you're still worried about viruses, you can always grab a copy of Tripwire, or something similar. In any case, there's not much incentive to write Unix viruses, in the same sense that there's not much incentive to break into Fort Knox and spray-paint graffiti on the walls: once you're in, there are much more interesting things you can do. Generally speaking, cracking a Unix box usually involves gaining illegal access to an account on the target machine, preferably root. If you manage to crack root, you can do anything you like: steal files, leapfrog to other machines (e.g., to get through a firewall, or to cover your tracks), steal other accounts, get free computer time, etc. If you trash the boot disk, or something equally destructive, you'll only draw attention to yourself, and encourage the owner of the target machine to tighten security in the future. If you lie low, you might be able to use the machine for ages. Of course, there are other issues, such as denial-of-service attacks, but I've rambled long enough already. And remember: "hacker" is to "cracker" as "artist" is to "forger". -- Andrew Arensburger, Systems guy Center for Automation Research arensb@cfar.umd.edu University of Maryland Cthulhu awakens in 24 hours. Have a nice day.
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