[LAD] [OT]: Re: Linux Malware

[Lorenzo Sutton]

Hope the [OT] labelling excuses me being verbose :)

On 22/03/12 16:17, Louigi Verona wrote:
> Hey guys!
>
> This is an Offtopic question, really, but I wanted to ask people I know
> and people who are developers - what are the reasons there are (almost)
> no viruses on Linux?

I think there is a subtle yet substantial different between 'viruses' 
and 'malware' (and my thought is confirmed by wiwipedia [1])

A virus is traditionally a piece of code attached to an executable which 
you run and 'infects' the system and easily replicates when copied to 
other systems. In the old days it was really easy to get these by 
swapping floppy disks.

Malware is a software which is intently programmed to perform 
unforeseen, unwanted, harmful activity, usually behind the back of the 
user. The degree of 'mal'-ness is to some degree subject to debate and 
user perception. E.g. a programme sending information to a server 
without the user knowingly accepting this could be considered malware, 
but many users are ok with this. So could be considered a programme that 
once removed from the system leaves an hidden or hard to remove trace 
(e.g. some anti-piracy mechanisms do this). Or simply a programme which 
changes your homepage or default search engine.

The most obvious way I could see some-one 'catching' a virus for linux 
would be execute a programme with viral code. I think this is much more 
unlikely in linux due to e.g. distribution packaging, massive presence 
of open source (and thus the many eyes), no user/consumer antivirus market.

As for malware one could say that a harmful script (say one that does rm 
/) is malware, I would take it a little further saying that to define it 
malware the user should be tricked into executing it.

In both cases you can see how proprietary is the 'bad guy' in all of 
this. How do you know that skype isn't malware when you doenload a 
binary .deb blob and install it? Even on linux?

Lorenzo.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus