Viruses? can I get them?

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kabooky

Viruses? can I get them?

#1 Post by kabooky »

I'm thinking not many viruses are applicable to linux, but if there are and I get one, Is there a way to shutdown puppy correctly without writing back the pup100 file?- and therefore being able to boot clean again? and hopefully I think any virus would be contained in the ram, not having access to the ntfs harddrive or the flashdrive where the os originated from. Tell me what to watch out for.

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klhrevolutionist
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Virus

#2 Post by klhrevolutionist »

Best thing to do is keep away from unsecure sites, have an e-mail scanner yahoo provides scanning and puppy has f-prot which if you google will tell you more than i can If your running from the disc just don't save anything back to the disc if from hard drive and you know you have a virus there are linux distros out there designed to recover your data safely that is what I reccomend
I hope this helps you

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Ian
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#3 Post by Ian »

Just switch off your machine if you are worried about viruses.
In 7 years of using Linux I have never had a virus yet.

kabooky

#4 Post by kabooky »

not really worried at all about viruses, I kinda know that noone writes virues to attack linux, usually. I was more of wondering if there was a "correct" way to boot down without copying the pup100 file back. I know the drive will boot consistantly since it wouldn't be modified, but just curious thats all.

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Flash
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#5 Post by Flash »

Even if there have been no known Linux viruses, and I'm not so sure that is true, I think your concern is not unwarranted. Lately, worms and viruses are said to be professionally written to take over large numbers of computers for various nefarious commercial uses. If that is true then Linux is not immune to attack. I would guess that Puppy's unusual nature provides some protection, since a worm or virus written for the more mainstream Linux distros might not work in Puppy too. Still, malware is a possibility to keep in mind. Did you know that Puppy has a firewall? You will find it at Start->Setup->Morizot firewall wizard.

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imsimwim
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#6 Post by imsimwim »

Hi, I'd like to share an experience I had with Puppy to try and answer your question. I installed my Puppy onto a USB stick at home, and upgraded the WM to IceWm with some extra themes and stuff. That was at home, so I took the USB stick to work, to go and demonstrate Puppy to some people .

Lo and behold, none of the PC's at work would boot from the USB stick. So I resorted to booting of the live CD. But then a thought struck my mind, that I could possibly copy the PUP100 file from the USB stick to the harddrive, delete the PUP001 file, and rename PUP100 to PUP001. After all, the PUP100 file should be exactly the same as the PUP001 file, the only difference could be size, not? So I did that, I booted into Ubuntu, my permanent installation, and did the following commands;

cd /
ls (to make sure I was in the root directory, and saw the PUP001 file)
sudo rm pup001
sudo cp /media/usbdisk/pup100 /pup001

I rebooted the PC, still of the live CD, but this time it picked up the PUP001 file I swapped out from the USB stick. It mounted the new PUP001 file without a hitch, and brought up the configuration exactly as on my USB stick, with IceWM and all the extra software I had installed at home.

This leads me to believe, that you should be able to simply make a copy of the PUP001 file before shutting down or rebooting, because it only gets updated once you reboot. Then replace the old PUP001 file, which might be infected, with the copy you made, and boot up. Problem fixed...
Grrrrrrrr, give a dog a bone

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BarryK
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#7 Post by BarryK »

Just tossing in another thought...

I'm not an expert in viruses, but understand they usually infect executable files.
So, executables in /usr are vulnerable.
Previously, before /usr was writable, this was no problem.

Now, if think that you do have an infected executable, one thing to do is delete everything in /root/.usr/ then reboot.

Executables in /root/my-applications/ or /root/myrox-apps/ would still have to be dealt with.


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Flash
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#9 Post by Flash »

That's really hilarious (but it doesn't really address the question of Linux viruses.) :lol:

bugman

#10 Post by bugman »

While I would be apprehensive about kissing Bill Gates, I find the mouth of a Puppy to be very clean...

Bruce B

#11 Post by Bruce B »

I think I spend more time worrying about getting struck by lightening in a telephone booth on a hot summer day, than I do viruses.

Probably if a typical Puppy user has worries or concerns, the area to focus on would be browser exploits of various types. Especially, because some of the newer than Puppy's SeaMonkey releases contain some security fixes.

PS Most browser exploits can be avoided by disabling JavaScript or installing the NoScript extension and allowing JavaScript on a case by case basis.

jamien770
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anti-virus software

#12 Post by jamien770 »

I know what everyone is saying that "Linux" has very few viruses, but there has been recent caes of redhat servers being infected with worms. I am newish to linux ( though did unix 18yrs ago at college) . I am a computer engineer but am a WINDOZE engineer and tape silos, and dec and hp 9000 equip.

I dont like viruses so just want to make sure I am completly safe from them, is there any AV software that I can get, I am running Puppy 4 with asus P3700 128mb with full install and no windows on the laptop.

Please can anyone advise

seeker
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#13 Post by seeker »

Clam anti virus can be installed with the Puppy package manager, PETget.

From what I have read the XF-Prot virus scanner that comes with Puppy is for scanning Windows partitions, although that could be incorrect.

Seeker

stanjam
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Why you are pretty safe

#14 Post by stanjam »

As a rule, you are pretty safe from viruses and malware when you use Linux, and this is for several reasons.

1. Most virus writers target Windows, since Windows systems make up most of the computer systems out there. This is one argument. However, the person who writes a pervasive Linux virus would get one heck of a rep, so I don't buy this as the main reason.

2. Most Linux systems are designed in such a way that makes it nearly impossible for them to get infected. These malicious programs must install themselves onto a computer. For that they need the proper permissions. Easy in Windows, since most people run as admin, and there is no need for installation confirmation, so anything can install itself. Most Linux distros are set up so that the users run as limited users, and only root can install. This means that it is nearly impossible for the malicious program to install itself.

Now distros like Puppy make an interesting problem, since the user runs as root. Theoretically this makes it alot easier for a virus or other malicious program that is written for Linux to install itself. I am not sure what protections are built in. Most Linux distros are still protected because the actual install would need some level of user interaction. Still, you are not as safe running as root in Puppy as you would be as a limited user in say, Fedora or Ubuntu.

That all said, there is yet to be any indication of any virus or other malicious program that I am aware of in the wild that can affect your Linux machine, Puppy or otherwise.

Still, you can use the included anti-virus to make the occasional check of your system, and also: Be smart in your browsing habits! There are plenty of Windows users out there that don't run anti-virus and never get a virus, because they are smart about the way they browse.

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ecomoney
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#15 Post by ecomoney »

I offer a (not very) commercial service to install puppy as a dual boot (with CD) alongside windows. In our ads we put "No more viruses again EVER, or your money back"

Im quite comfortable with this, having run linux exclusively for five years and read up a lot about it on the net. Plus if one ever one was discovered, I would be the "hero" that discovered it so it could be fixed within a few hours....thats how open source works. Even theoretical vulnerabilities are almost always patched within hours of the developer being aware of them. With windows you have to wait for them to issue an update, and that can take years.
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ragaman
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#16 Post by ragaman »

Take a look at this:
Attachments
virused usb.jpg
Here's a USB drive that is full of viruses. Opened in Puppy which was never affected. This infestation would have dropped Windows to its knees.
(82.71 KiB) Downloaded 863 times

steve-in-brazil
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#17 Post by steve-in-brazil »

Maybe you can get some of those viruses to work if you use wine.

ragaman
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#18 Post by ragaman »

My Puppy does have wine.

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Lobster
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#19 Post by Lobster »

The most you can hope for with malware is for a javascript hijack
(sorry MS users - you gonna have to ditch your paranoia addiction and security fixes)
In Puppy 4.2 use monkey menu or Alt + ctrl + C to clear any javascript hijacks

Viruses? We are Linux - inoculation comes as standard. :)
Last edited by Lobster on Tue 25 Aug 2009, 04:49, edited 1 time in total.
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JigOS
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#20 Post by JigOS »

Viruses? We are Linux - inoculation comes as standard. Smile
^ whoo!

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