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To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.

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awemawson:
I never understood this 'immune to viruses' thing with Linux / Unix. Surely if everything is open source it is even more vulnerable.   :scratch:

Perhaps it's just a volume thing. Very small proportion of desk top / home systems run it so it's not targeted as much maybe?

AdeV:

--- Quote from: awemawson on April 24, 2014, 05:49:04 AM ---I never understood this 'immune to viruses' thing with Linux / Unix. Surely if everything is open source it is even more vulnerable.   :scratch:

Perhaps it's just a volume thing. Very small proportion of desk top / home systems run it so it's not targeted as much maybe?

--- End quote ---

Small volumes are part of the reason people don't target Linux/Unix systems; but they are also inherently more secure than Windows - e.g. everything typically runs in the logged in user's account, which will not have system privileges. What's more, nothing can "sneak" onto the system via a click or keypress, as it needs to ask for system privileges first, and that involves the user typing their password in (assuming, of course, they have those rights).

PS: Of course, Linux isn't totally immune - look at the recent Heartbleed exploit, which took advantage of a hole in OpenSSL (the open-source Secure Sockets Layer) to attack Linux (and other *nix) systems.

mattinker:
I'm not qualified to give the full explanation, but a quick web search revealed this.

http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/284124-myth-busting-is-linux-immune-to-viruses

Regards, Matthew

DavidA:
Mathew,

Very good link.

The general opinion seems to be that any real threat will come via attachments.  So in that case of a site like this it will be usually via pictures.  A real dagger in the heart if ever there was one.

But otherwise it seems fairly safe.

I'm off to read up on rkhunter.

Dave.

awemawson:
Good link that raises MORE questions  :scratch:

What the heck is an RPM based system and what is BASH  :bang:

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