People say Linux (Unix Platform) better than Windows Platform - How come! OS is OS! right?

Question

Ok let me break it down:

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People say Windows security is weak while Linux is stable & good.

Ok! Lets take to the basic when somebody hacks a computer of somebody else, you simply send an encrypted server to the victim & once he click it, the server going to establish connection to the client. The weakness here is in the Firewall application such anti-virus, kaspersky, etc. Therefore, you the server (trojan) passed by and opened a connection to the client. You could do this to any platform, as long as the security application such as anti-spyware, etc has not recognized the server (trojan), so OS got nothing to do with security?!

Because if you have no firewall app. , no matter how great OS is the hacker will hack it anyway. So whats the point here of saying Win is weaker than Linux, etc. You see, when you hack a computer, you do not need to find a vulnerability in the OS so you can hack it, all you need is to passby the firewall app. such as kaspersky, etc.

Here i'm talking about very simple hacking just for explaination pursposes, nothing else.

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When CS's say Windows has vulnerabilities. Thus, its not secured. In which points these vulnerabilities can harm your system cause a computer system can not hack your computer until you except an encrypted malicious file!

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Some say, they put trojans on other people's PC's from Windows vulnerabilities. I do not really get this. Anyhow, if they a hacker put a trojan into my Windows vulnerabilities, thats mean he/she already hacked my computer thru a melicious file. Therefore, there is no point to put trojan in my Win vulnerabilities as you already hacked my PC.

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Please note: in this question i'm talking about regular OS for PC's, not servers. The purpose of this question is for educational purposes just to clarify my confusions, i like to read about computer related concepts. I hope you can help.

Bear me, my English is not that good.

Answer 1

sure, you might be able to get someone to install a trojan horse from any client system.

difference between windows and unix (including linux and macosx) is that the very architecture of the system limits what you can do in unix to minimal permissions, while in windows it is trivial for a trojan horse to acquire  full system permissions.

so for windows, your machine might start spamming the world for example, while on linux, maybe some files get deleted from the user's (but no one else's including the system itself) files get deleted.

this is because with full system privileges, your machine can act as a server, on any port, but as a regular user on unix, no, you can't do that.

Answer 2

maybe you do not have clear ideas about the thing, i am talking about your first example, too late to read the rest.

"Lets take to the basic when somebody hacks a computer of somebody else, you simply send an encrypted server to the victim & once he click it" ... really?!

Operating Systems have all to do with their own security, ... OSs are software after all, bugs prone, as any sw; and they are the "first" sw... so the big part of the security issue is for OSs.

there are too many details where a OSs can act differently so that it is less or more secure. forgetting about bugs, the way the layers of a OSs are planned, the way they interacts, do matter.

then, thinking about windows... it is a culture problem too. average windows users are ignorant that get what it is sold to them, no less no more. they do not think about linux, mac, windows... they buy. and they want the h**l machine to work as they want. they believe it is a smart machine able to understand them and protect them...

microsoft cheats and let them believe it is so... they are secure because there's mum microsoft. they can click wherever they want to, since they have the latest antivirus, the latest spyware and so on...

and the windows OS is like a cheese full of holes... the first hole is the user him/herself...

everything that invites you to think about what's going on is better than the things that invites you to just consume and let other think instead of you.

Answer 3

There are a few reasons that UNIX and UNIX-like systems (like Linux) are more secure by design than Windows. First of all, many Windows users run administrator accounts, which do not require a password before a program is executed. If an admin executes a program that has a virus, the virus has complete control over the computer instantly, and without needing to get through anything. On a UNIX system, the user almost never uses the all-powerful "root" account, and if they do, they must put in a password to execute powerful programs. UNIX systems also have proper memory protection, which means that even if a virus is executed, it cannot under any circumstances (except if a security hole is found) modify the memory of another process. This is also the reason that UNIX systems won't break because a program does something bad, because that program is perfectly isolated. There is also the fact that fewer desktop users use UNIX and Linux etc., so fewer people write viruses for them. Neither Windows nor UNIX are perfect, but the general security design of Windows is worse.

Answer 4

Your first section is correct in that basic "install backdoor and hack" is a vulnerability independent to OS type.

The second section is not correct. A competent hacker can access a vulnerable system without you having to except or install anything. The main reason why windows in more vulnerable to this kind of attack is two fold. First more people use Windows there for a larger number of people are good at hacking Windows. Two windows is a OS based on profit margins, meaning that more sloppy code is let past in order to get the OS out the door.

I will try to explain your question in the third section.

If you OS has a vulnerability that will allow me to tell it to execute a command then I can use this to get it to run something or install something that will allow me to get around your security measures.

For example there was many instances of IE vulnerabilities that allowed remote users to execute VB scripts on a system running that version of IE. This would allow a user to embed a trojan within a VB script and have the target system run this script.

Answer 5

linux is good for embedding systems. If you wnat security go mac.

Answer 6

Firewall applications such anti-virus, Kaspersky as you mention are not what keeps your computer or a server safe. Software firewalls are incredible  weak, they are only a small part of  the defence, a hacker if he wanted to could easily by pass the security of any software fire wall application. Major companies such as banks do not use software applications to keep there server or computers secure, they use hardware security devices such as the Cisco firewalls which are more dependable then software applications.

Windows is not nessasy  less secure but it is the domiante OS if you were a hacker you would want to effect as many people as possibe, and that's why Windows is at a higher risk