From: "Patrick O'Callaghan" <pocallaghan@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, 2010/April/15 13:31
> On Thu, 2010-04-15 at 13:02 -0700, Michael Miles wrote:
>> Is Fedora really that secure?
>
> Even if we limit the discussion to email viruses, that's a very complex
> and difficult question (to which the answer is "yes" :-). It's not an
> attribute exclusive to Fedora as such, but to all Unix-based systems,
> mainly for three reasons:
>
> 1) The mail client isn't running as root.
> 2) Even when running as root, Linux mail clients won't blindly execute
> attachments.
> 3) Even for executable attachments, the virus is written for Windows and
> won't run on Linux.
>
> Of course it's in principle possible to get past all the above barriers,
> so *in theory* you can have a Linux virus, assuming the user is stupid
> enough to run an unknown executable. As I say, I've never seen one in
> the wild.
>
>> I come from windows and I am amazed at how not secure windows is.
>
> See (3) above. Most viruses are written for Windows as it's the most
> popular platform. MS likes to pretend that's the only reason it gets all
> the grief, but there are other factors.
Patrick, the best AV tool of all is a savvy user given the number of
social engineering attacks of late. And, at least historically, 'ix users
have been quite savvy about security. That makes a huge difference. A
single mistake running something you should not have because it looks
important can bust your whole day. Based on the security forums I read
I'd not consider Linux bullet-proof "today" - kernel null pointer
dereferences and mmap are your enemy du jour.
{^_^}
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