will virus infect other machines in the same wireless network?

[James Knott]

A virus doesn't have to be root to propagate (e.g. email viruses), it
only has to be root to destroy a system. Of course, that won't protect
an individual user's files.

Paul

That's certainly the case with Linux. Now compare that to the Windows
situation where IE and ActiveX are directly connected to the kernel and, at
least some of the time, have full access to the computer. Even locked down
corporate systems are still vulnerable, due to security deficiencies in MS
software.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I've never claimed that Linux/Unix viruses are impossible. However,
the basic design philosophy of Unix & Linux makes it extremely
difficult for one to propigate. For example, IE is tightly coupled
to the Windows kernel, which means that if it gets compromised, the
whole system is. Then there's ActiveX, which relies on trusting the
source for security, or the old default behavior of Outlook to
automatically run executable attachments, limitations that encourage
users to run as admin, etc. On the other hand, Linux & Unix are
designed in a modular fashion, which limits the ability of a malware
to do damage, a user has to a) detach an executable b) make it
executable and c) run it. Even then it can only affect his own files
and not the whole system. Also, users are discouraged from running
as root, except as necessary. Security in Linux & Unix was built in
from the start, as they were intended to be multiuser. Windows
however, was originally designed as a single user, non networked
system, with security controls tacked on later. You might also take
note of the fact that about 70 - 75% of all web sites are running
Unix or Linux, yet have the fewest successful attacks. Incidentally,
many of those commercial firewall/router boxes run Linux or Unix.

I'm not disputing that Linux is inherently more secure than XP. It has a
much better security model. I believe the problem is that MS has always
tried to provide backwards compatibilty for legacy applications. This has
greatly hindered security to the extent that a complete rewrite of the OS is
needed. Hopefully Vista will be better as my understanding is that it is a
complete rewrite.

You may be wrong about Apache vs IIS though. For Apache 2.0.x
www.secunia.com currently lists 28 advisories of which 2 remain unpatched.
IIS 6 lists 2 advisories with 0 unpatched. This could mean one of several
things. Because Apache has more market share more hackers are interested in
it or Apache is less secure than IIS or secunia.com has their statistics
wrong.

Kerry

 

[Bert Hyman]

In James Knott

Some Linux distros make it difficult for a user to run as root.

What do you mean? No "su" command? No SUID or SGID mode settings for
executables?

Someone who has installed any variety of U*IX on their desktop MUST run as
root for any number of reasons, and many applications MUST run SUID root.

 

[James Knott]

What do you mean? No "su" command? No SUID or SGID mode settings for
executables?

Someone who has installed any variety of U*IX on their desktop MUST run as
root for any number of reasons, and many applications MUST run SUID root.

No, I mean that by reducing paths, bright ugly desktops when root etc., they
discourage users from running as root. About the only one I'm aware of
that defaults to a root user is Linspire. I guess they tried too hard to
be like Windows. ;-)

And no, not all users need to run as root (or admin in Windows). For
example, a user in an office environment generally has no need to run as
root or admin. While I know the root password for my home computer, I only
have to use it when installing or configuring something. It's not
necessary for daily use. There are a few methods of allowing a user
temporary root rights in Linux, such as su, suid, sudoers etc. In fact, I
use sudoers on my notebook, so that I, as a user, can switch from ethernet
to wifi or static to DHCP address etc. At no time do I have to use the
root password to do this.

 

[DigitalVinyl]

When I setup wireless network at home, if one machine is infected with
virus, will the other machines be infected as well? Or if one machine
is hacked, will the others be infected too?

please advise. thanks!!

Some viruses propigated by walking through a WIndows workgroup or
domain. If you belonged to one, it would attempt to infect you. Others
used shared network drives.

Many of the viruses that are coded to spread across the network spread
across the Internet. By that I mean the infected PC actually walks
through every IP address in the world attempting to infect every
Interent address. Theoretically that would be 4.3 billion addresses,
but in reality less than 3 billion are used. More than 30% of the
addresses on the internet have not been issued yet.

So whether you are connected wired or wireless doesn't matter. If the
virus has a infection vector open to you, you are at risk.
DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

 

[John Thompson]

In James Knott

If that attitude becomes widespread as more and more non-technical folks
start using Linux, you can be sure Linux will become a target.

Remember, the first reported Internet worm selectively infected Vaxen and
Sun boxes running Berkeley BSD UNIX.

And now, almost 20 years later, there are more than 70,000 Windows
viruses, worms, and other exploits circulating but still only a handful
of *nix exploits.

Windows was not designed to be a networked, multi-user system -- these
were grafted on at a leter date. *nix OTOH, was designed for such an
environment and is inherently less vulnerable to such exploits.

The Morris worm took advantage of *nix programmers and administrators of
that time not practicing strict privelege separation. These days you'd be
hard-pressed to find commonly used server software that doesn't run at
reduced privleges.

 

[John Thompson]

There are AV(s) for Linux too BTW I don't remember
some of the names that were posted to me but you can use Google.

Yes, there are. They're for scanning files and mail on linux servers for
*Windows* clients. IOW, the scanning is not for linux viruses attacking
the linux machine, but for Windows viruses that the linux server might
otherwise pass on to Windows clients.