Do you know viruses on Linux?

Question

Are there viruses for Linux, and if they are, are there any anti viruses that can assure 100% safety. Or the virus attacks only certain versions of Linux?

Answer 1

There are virus, but they are extremely rare, so not much to be worried about.

never needed to install any AV on a linx sytme though, usaly it crahses of free will before a virus can get to it. Xorg is a pain in the *** for doing that (its not a distro, jsut part of linux for graphic drivers)

All ditros use the smae Linux Kernel, so all are susceptibel to the smae virus, though exploits in applicaitons may be distro dependet, lei having a glithcv in Firefox, ouwld affect any firefox on linux (and also on Mac and Windows.

Answer 2

There have been a couple of "research" viruses created which affect Linux but none have ever been reported in the wild. The fact is that the security vulnerabilities which *had* to be built into Windows for compatibility reasons are not present in Linux.

Furthermore, if somebody did come up with something, because most Linux distributions nowadays restrict root access, the virus wouldn't be able to infect any important bits of the system and the nature of different distributions will mean that it wouldn't actually do anything on most anyway. Kind of a tough target for the script kiddies who write viruses so perhaps they just don't bother...

You can download Linux antivirus applications, but they are intended typically for file servers which are accessed by Windows clients to help protect the clients.

Answer 3

Yes there are a few viruses for Linux, but none of them are in the wild. Most software you install are from your distribution's repository so there's not much chance of getting a virus.

The most a hacker can do is exploit some vulnerability in a closed source component like Flash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Li...

I once got this virus as an email attachment though:

http://i33.tinypic.com/2nga58x.jpg

Answer 4

there are suppose to be bugs out there for us but they must not attack the desktop user that much I surf hard core p**n all the time and with windows I could burn down a computer in less then a day evan with the best AV and firewalls. with linux I dont run the first AV or anything to secure it beyound the factory setings and I have 0 problems and I surf more all the time that speaks for itself if you ask me. so say the AV stuff on linux is to help not pass bad bugs on to the MS users I say s***w them if they are still using windows they deserve the bugs they dont seam to want our help and I have no more computer problems so I dont care beyond that

Answer 5

They are rare, you will most likely never get one. And should a virus ever be released, it would be patched with in the day.

That's why the air force uses linux, it's effin secure.