While surfing the net, I happened to see a mention about free AVG antivirus for Linux. Is something like this actually required to be installed with Linux? I am new to Linux and my impression about Linux is that Viruses cannot attack a system operating on Linux. Can someone explain please?
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Re: About antivirus
In my experience, I have never needed and anti virus program on my computer. The exception would be, that if you are running a server and clients running MS OS's, you might want to have protection to prevent passing malware to the clients. -
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"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.Comment
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Re: About antivirus
I concur with the above adding this:
If you do a lot email forwarding it would be good practice to scan those mails before sending them on, so as to keep others machines with that "other OS" safe.HP Pavilion dv6 core i7 (Main)
4 GB Ram
Kubuntu 18.10Comment
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Re: About antivirus
That makes a lot of sense to me and I've heard it elsewhere too. However, I would also say that many people don't forward a lot of email. It's quite rare for me and when I do it is almost never including any attachments - which is where the virus would be.Originally posted by Fintan
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Re: About antivirus
If you're new to the Linux world then remember to avoid downloading software from websites as much as possible -- you're best off always searching in your package manager first -- but if you must use an outside source try to ensure it's trustworthy and, if in doubt, ask here first.
This won't offer you 100 per cent security but it should keep you safe from absent-mindedly infecting your own system :PComment
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Re: About antivirus
Hi everyone,
I see that my question has started a real "group discussion"! Thank you all for participating. Most interesting amongst the replies was in the article mentioned by "oshunluvr" and the comments following the said article. And, the specific words as used by miKeyBabid (as well as some comments in the article mentioned) leads me to believe that YES, I was under a wrong impression.
Well, after reading all these, what I could gather is as follows:
1. It is not that viruses do not get downloaded in Linux OS. It is just that none of those malwares get executed without permission form "root". Whereas in Windows, this permission is automatic and it gets executed without the knowledge of the person operating the computer.
2. Whenever you are working in a Linux platform, it is preferable to login as a user having a password different from the root password. Otherwise there is a possibility that some virus may get activated and possibly "mess up" the system or its data.
3. Currently since the number of people using Linux as OS is too less, it is not economical for the hackers out there to produce viruses that could work in Linux platform. But of course, this situation may change in future and hence it is better to have some antivirus in the system.
4. If I am in the habit of forwarding e-mails, I might infect others' machines through the viruses that came with them. Hence, I should do some kind of virus scan before forwarding mail to others. At least for this purpose I should have an antivirus even in my Linux OS. Well, all these years with the Windows, I have never bothered to do such scanning of forwarded mails. But automatically, Yahoo mail scans attachments with Norton antivirus before down loading. Is that much of safety enough to ensure that viruses do not get in? Well . . . a million dollar question probably!
5. In short, an antivirus is necessary even in a PC with Linux OS
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Re: About antivirus
In my personal opinion installing anti virus software isn't a must - I don't bother with one. But it's a personal choice. I prefer to employ a bit of common sense, rather than the added bloat of an anti virus. And if I'm feeling truly paranoid (if checking my online bank details etc.) then I just run off a live Puppy CD (although if someone were to steal the 259 euros I have to my name it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference
)
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Re: About antivirus
I think it doesn't do any harm to run an antivirus, but in the main it would be most likely to protect those to whom we forward files. However, I have yet to find any virus scanner that can be trivially setup to scan on execute or to integrate with my e-mail client (thunderbird). I can't seem to get on with kmail (which I think some AV programs will integrate with) due to Akonadi failures (an old chestnut).
If I could find such a program I would probably run it in real-time. Currently giving bit defender a trial. It seems competent and easy to use as an on-demand scanner although I've turned the drop-box off as it's very resource hungry (180mb RAM just to sit there on the desktop).
One other point.. One of the major advantages of 'buntu is the ability to get the latest and greatest via ppas. I don't know the extent to which these are vetted but wouldn't that be an area of risk potentially as we have gone outside the cozy environment of the main repos?
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Re: About antivirus
It may be an area of risk. Any software installed from outside the standard repos carries some risk, and the same holds true for PPAs. One good thing about PPAs is that they are all digitally signed, at least all the ones I have used are. By signing packages the originator takes full responsibility. In other words, if something went bad then we would have someone to blame.Originally posted by The LiquidatorComment
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Re: About antivirus
The PPAs aren't vetted. The only requirement to creating a PPA is a launchpad account, and the signing the code of conduct. It is all based on the honor system, and the data used to create a launchpad account is simple to fake. Once you have the launchpad account you can link your PPA to it, and start uploading packages. It wouldn't be too hard to hide something in the source, send it up to the PPA system to be built, and then host a Canonical signed package containing something pretty bad.Originally posted by TelengardDon't blame me for being smarter than you, that's your parent's fault.
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Re: About antivirus
I keep 3 USB memory sticks in my pocket at all times. Two are USB Kubuntu Live sticks and one is an 8 GB data stick. One of the USB Kubuntu Live sticks is used to do online banking when I am away from my laptop at home and transferring money to my debit account is necessary. I can use any desktop or laptop that has a USB 2.0 port and an internet connection, preferable an ethernet cable. But using FF's safe browsing or TOR one can use a public wireless connection too.Originally posted by miKeyBabid
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.Comment
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Re: About antivirus
ExactlyOriginally posted by bai.ganga
A more correct way to state it might be: "Never log in as root user." Root access, when needed, is available through "sudo" or "kdesudo". It is almost never needed and never advisable to "log in" as root, although it may be made possible.Originally posted by bai.ganga
Maybe - might be that the likelihood of having any affect on a linux system because of it's better security makes viruses for linux a (an even more so) waste of time.Originally posted by bai.ganga
I tend to believe that it is not my responsibility to install software to protect others systems' because they have chosen an inadequate OS. It is up to them to protect themselves. Norton, Microsoft, AVG, and others sell millions of dollars of software to those people when a simple filtering system put in place by email providers could eliminate email software. This too, is not my problem. - sorry...Originally posted by bai.ganga
I respectfully disagree, but that is OK with me because after all - it is your system!Originally posted by bai.ganga
Oh, and GreyGeek: My new IT job managing 23 computers - I use a thumb drive to transfer file from the internet via my laptop to the networked system (not attached to the internet for security). one of the first things my boss told me was - never, never, never allow anyone to put a thumb drive in any of the WINDOWS machines on the network because it was too easy for a boot-sector virus to attach itself. We only transfer on and off the network via a linux file server!Comment
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Re: About antivirus
That is my position on attachments on email as well.Originally posted by oshunluvr
Smart boss. Where I worked we had 6 very well trained and very intelligent MSCEs. They worked their butts off keeping 400 Windows workstations and some Windows servers running and secure. EVERY server and workstation was running the latest, greatest updated AV software, there were automatic scans done every night and the Firewall and AV software on the Windows Internet proxy server were tuned, trained and watched like a hawk. It didn't make a difference. Incoming email malware attachments had signatures that were not in the latest AV dat files and a pandemic would break out among the workstations, giving the MSCE nights of grief doing the MSCE mantra. I never heard how many manual hacks were successful but there were some.Oh, and GreyGeek: My new IT job managing 23 computers - I use a thumb drive to transfer file from the internet via my laptop to the networked system (not attached to the internet for security). one of the first things my boss told me was - never, never, never allow anyone to put a thumb drive in any of the WINDOWS machines on the network because it was too easy for a boot-sector virus to attach itself. We only transfer on and off the network via a linux file server!
The IT boss finally got tired of the vulnerability and ordered a Linux server with special AV and security software on it ($28K worth or hardware and software) to act as the Internet proxy/firewall. Overnight their malware cleanup duties dried up and infections became rare. One of the last infections was caused by someone bringing in a CD with music. Then, someone brought in a USB stick with music and malware and the IT staff was on another fire drill. That led to the disabling of the USB sticks and CDs on all workstations, except those of the IT staff and the developers.
Now, the only time malware gets into their system is when a Microsoft or 3rd party product update carries one in."A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.Comment
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