Virus' and worms on linux?

[AtomicWind]

I was reading a bunch of the posts in this section and am wondering. Is linux (workstations and servers) immune to virus' and worms due to it running from the command prompt?

[UnseenMenace]

Linux is NOT immune to worms and virus however it does appear to have vastly superior security to other Operating Systems, I believe that root kits were a concern at some point.... However as a Linux newbie I have had minimal security problems that I am aware of

[AtomicWind]

thats what I figured. The only reason that made me think was that everything is done at the command prompt with linux. Nothing is ever completely immune, no matter what it will always have an effect.

[rogerdugans]

I believe that one of the things that helps linux be less non-secure is the way it uses permissions: regular users can't do many things so unless you are logged in as root there is some security in that.

BUT- there are still virii that go after Linux.

The single main reason why there are more virii that go after Windows and windows apps? Market share.

The scum who code virii want to affect as many computers as possible usually (unless they have a specific whine) so they go after the OSes with the largest installed base.

That, more than anything else, is responsible for the largest percentage of virii being targeted at Windows and Windows software.

[XWRed1]

Viruses don't need guis to work.

Not many people make Linux or Unix viruses. Even then they are hard to spread because of user permissions. There have been worms in the past, but nothing remotely as rampant as any of the ones that have happened on the Microsoft side in the last few years. Partially because the exploited vulnerabilities were more obscure. With Blaster, *EVERYONE* is potentially vulnerable unless they are patched, every machine runs rpc and you can't turn it off, only firewall it (in which case some things might break)

[Carnil]

Another reason is that Linux machines are less homogenous than Windows machines. A worm that exploits a buffer overflow on one machine might simply crash another, and have no effect at all on a third. One Linux worm I know of has eight different methods of attacking a system just to cover the common versions of RedHat Linux.

[moorcito]

The only problem in thinking that Linux is immune beacuse of its user permissions is that any progam that is suid as root runs as root. Which means any program suid as root that can be exploited will end up dumping to a root shell prompt, or worse.

A poorly configured *nix is just as a vunerable as any windows machine. The main risk to a Linux box isn't worms or virii, it's the users themselves. Type rm -r * as root and see what happens. (Don't do it actually, since it will delete your entire harddrive). Litte things like that can take down any *nix box faster than any virus.

[XWRed1]

Most *nix systems have as few suid binaries as they can manage, and usually those are pretty well audited.

Plus the systems aren't nearly as homogeneous as Windows systems are... if Linux was more popular though, its conceivable most people might be running say Redhat 11 and the big worm of the day could target a vulnerability in the stock installation.