On Thursday 20 August 2015 20:50:43 Miles Fidelman wrote: > Renaud (Ron) OLGIATI wrote: > > On Thu, 20 Aug 2015 19:33:17 +0100 > > > > Brian <a...@cityscape.co.uk> wrote: > >> On Thu 20 Aug 2015 at 20:24:16 +0200, Diogene Laerce wrote: > >>>> Hello guys. I wanted to know if antivirus is required for Debian or > >>>> for linux in general. And if it is required, what are the recommended > >>>> antivirus for Debian? > >>>> Thank you in advance. > >>> > >>> Required no, advised I guess. > >> > >> You guessed wrong. > > > > Although I know that proof-of-concept viruses (virii ?) have been created > > in computer labs, has anyone seen one alive in the wild ? > > Yes. There are lots of things that attack Linux, including various > rootkits (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware for a partial > list). Then try googling "Mayhem" and "Shellshock" (hint: can you say > botnet?) > > There are also quite few threats that are not so much Linux-specific as > application-specific. For example there are LOTS of things that attack > Wordpress - I see probes and attacks in my logs by the thousands (daily) > - and managed to get infected at one point. Needless to say, that > installation has been hardened significantly. > > And then there are the attacks on the linux derivatives that run on > various network devices like routers and IPMI boxes. (Just what you > want attached to a server, a remote console server that will give up its > password if asked nicely. Also got bit by that - someone launched a > reflection attack against a commercial game server, through one of our > console servers.) > > "Linux is naturally secure" is bulls*&t. It's more secure than Windows, > but that's not saying an awful lot.
The question wasn't about security in general, when no-one is totally secure. But about viruses specifically. They are low risk on a Linux box. Lisi
