Linux viruses -- everything you need to know!

[KDEnewbie]

One thing I forgot to mention, although Steve Riley's good explanation of how the subject of the video itself became part of the discussion, does explain it well, is that, everyone in this thread since my linking to that video, has paid far too much attention to and has put far too much emphasis on the guy in the videos "abilities" or "degree of knowledge" or whatever.. way too much, I think this is why I jumped to the conclusion that someone may have felt "threatened" and also (from the way I see things) led me to ask "whats the matter with you guys".

Does it really matter so much if the guy is:-

a) a half wit
b) a genius greater than Einstein
c) anything in between a or b

Why so much attention & emphasis on the guys abilities if you are all so "ego neutral" ??

It was the exploit itself (showcased in the video, and entirely the subject of the video) that I was looking for discussion on.

[SteveRiley]

The original topic was, in fact, addresssed clearly and accurately in the first reply to your post. There's isn't much more to say regarding drive-by attacks that affect multiple platforms. The steps required to protect a computer from such attacks are well known and apply equally everywhere.

Regarding the video, I think I was pretty clear about how we operate here at KFN. Your use of the video, to show how someone's computer got attacked, means that the video itself carries equal weight as a topic of discussion. Since the topic of how to mitigate the attack was addressed rather easily, the conversation naturally turned to the topic of the video. Because the video contains factually inaccurate information, delivered by someone who claims to be an expert, our members chose to talk about that. We have a number of skilled technical folks here, many of whom do, in fact, possess detailed security knowledge. So to directly answer your question, yes indeed it matters whether the presenter knows his stuff. It's obvious he doesn't. There are no egos here: we're simply operating on facts (or non-facts) as presented.

If you have experience with other Linux boards, you may find that our mode of operation is a bit different. We tend to be much less rigid with respect to the direction conversations may flow. We have few rules; in fact, we have only one: personal attacks against individuals are expressly prohibited. Depending on the severity, we may warn first or temporarily ban. Repeated failure to follow this rule usually results in a permanent ban.

I hope that you can appreciate how we do things here. I hope you stick with us, and become a regular contributor.

[KDEnewbie]

Steve, thanks again for your input. Please rest assured, I was only adding the final thoughts that I simply forgot to mention in my previous reply to yourself & everyone. I am not asking for any further explanation about the drive by, just adding a bit more detail about how I saw things and how I thought there was a bit too much emphasis on the video guys skills etc..

The main reason I added my further explanation above was to hopefully show where I was coming from, having already been called a 'troll' by HalationEffect somewhere above in the previous page.

I will most certainly be sticking around as I really love the Kubuntu distro oh, and yes I do very much appreciate the relaxed approach to the forum, as a rough guess, about 98% of other forums are so uptight and restrictive, you just can't say a thing unless it's so ridiculously politically correct and whatever else.

Regards to all

[HalationEffect]

having already been called a 'troll' by HalationEffect somewhere above in the previous page.

Ahem... I didn't call you a troll, I said you were using the same tactics that trolls use. Not quite the same thing.

And if we were to tally up a score:

seems that you have some issue of some sort

Look at your attitude, lol

what's the matter with you?

generally being stupid enough to be offended on behalf of linux itself

he spent more time & effort looking down his nose

stupid & pointless comments

if that's not pathetic then what is it?

simply an unpleasant attitude, sneering & looking down as though he is so much better, in short an unpleasant arrogance

I am way behind on points when it comes to making personal digs, in both quantity and severity.

In fact, in my most recent post in this thread prior to this one, I even made an attempt at conciliation, but I see no reciprocation on your part. Was my attempt futile?

(Edit) Bottom line - I'd really prefer not to have bad blood between myself and anyone else here. I'm prepared to forget our previous exchanges if you are. Truce?

[SteveRiley]

(Edit) Bottom line - I'd really prefer not to have bad blood between myself and anyone else here. I'm prepared to forget our previous exchanges if you are. Truce?

I think this is the ideal mood with which we should bring this thread to a close. And by close I don't mean my admin-type close, but a mutual closure of the sometimes-heated discussion. Thank you, all.

[KDEnewbie]

Thanks for your post Halation, I think you make a good point, I did make some silly remarks I guess.

[Detonate]

Very interesting.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blog...n-cyber-attack

If I understand this correctly, this malware exploits a vulnerability in Internet Explorer. So if a machine were set to dual boot Windows and Linux it could destroy the Linux partition. But it could not directly attack through Linux. Is my understanding correct?

[HalationEffect]

Very interesting.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blog...n-cyber-attack

If I understand this correctly, this malware exploits a vulnerability in Internet Explorer. So if a machine were set to dual boot Windows and Linux it could destroy the Linux partition. But it could not directly attack through Linux. Is my understanding correct?

As I understood it, the malware (having infected a Windows machine) looks for remote Linux machines that the Windows box has root access to (via SSH, I think), then wipes the drives attached to the remote Linux box.

[Detonate]

Yes, after reading more closely, the Widows machine would have to have mRemote, an open source, multi-protocol remote connections manager installed, then it would use that to connect to the Linux computers.