Re: [tlug] PLEASE READ--I may have sent you a Virus!

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Jim" == Jim Breen <jwb@example.com> writes:

    Jim> Again to quote Rick: "If you simply never run untrusted
    Jim> executables while logged in as the root user (or equivalent),
    Jim> all the "virus checkers" in the world will be at best
    Jim> superfluous; at worst, downright harmful.  "Hostile"
    Jim> executables (including viruses) are almost unfindable in the
    Jim> Linux world -- and no real threat to it"

Rick's wrong.

To the extent that "hostile executables" have worm components, they
can be a threat because they can use local resources and access the
network as an ordinary user.

In fact, of the hostile executables, only true viruses are hard to
find in the Linux world (precisely because most executables are locked
up by root).  Trojans and worms are not hard to find at all.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
 My nostalgia for Icon makes me forget about any of the bad things.  I don't
have much nostalgia for Perl, so its faults I remember.  Scott Gilbert c.l.py