antivirus

[George Toft]

Sorry, I have to put in my $0.02 . . .

yarddog wrote:
> 
> On Wednesday 23 May 2001 01:14 am, foodog wrote about Re: antivirus:
> 
> > Mostly serious.  Linux is (for various reasons) pretty much free of
> > file infectors that used to plague DOS and Windows .  In recent
> > history most Windows vermin in the wild are either Visual BASIC
> > scripts or MS Office Macros, neither of which work under Linux.
> > There are a couple (maybe a few?) Linux file infectors.  If they're
> > run by an ordinary user, not root, they don't have much chance of
> > spreading to other programs on a reasonably configured system.
> >
> 
> I received the ha,ha,ha, sleeping............virus in my email tonight.
> I deleted it of course. I looked the headers and it appeared to me that
> someone had my address in their address book. I did not see evidence of
> any listserv that I belong to. That is why I started a concern about it.
> 
> > Linux has had several _worms_ running around lately (Ramen, Lion,
> > cheese).  That's another serious matter and addressed case-by-case -
> > that is, I'm not aware of anyone peddling an antivirus for Linux
> > except something that scans for Windows viruses; in email
> > attachments, for example.  The Linux worms that I've seen exploit
> > network services that should have been patched months ago.  Your best
> > bet is to not run services you don't need, and make sure that you
> > keep your system updated as vulnerabilities are uncovered.  Check the
> > errata page for your distribution for a start.
> >
> 
> Since I use RedHat 7.1, it has the online update errata that you speak
> of. I have kept up with that. Nice thing about RedHat is that the
> update is automatic after it is user initiated.

The worm fixes that Red Hat has *finally* fixed I reported to them two 
years ago.  Red Hat does *not* have a reputation for keeping their
distros up to date WRT security.

To head off a distro flame war, I will not advocate any distro in this 
mail.


> Sounds like a good firewall is most important then. I got one that came
> with RH and then I tried to install PMFirewall and it didn't install
> properly, I am assuming it is because RH already had the settings up.

I had a Red Hat firewall - that's what got infected.

George


> > Unfortunately(?) security can eat as much time as you're able to
> > give.
> >
> > BTW, for Windows systems F-Secure really is excellent, IMO.  HTH,
> 
> I have the freebee IT Inoculate in my laptop which has MS in it.
> 
> >
> > Steve
> 
> Thank you very much.
> 
> Jim.
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