Survival Time for Unpatched Systems Cut by Half

[Brian Densmore]

Exactly, so all this talk about how much more secure Linux is,
is partly FUD. Now I say partly FUD. Since once Linux has the
kind of market penetration as Windows and has Windows-like
uneducated users and socially engineered virii are made for Linux,
we will see Linux systems 0wn3d just like Windows. Not that there
aren't some better protections in Linux. A lot of it has to do with
the philosophy of the current vendors. Linux ships more secured, but
also Windows is now taking some pages from Linux to make Windows more
secure from the get go. So it really is true that competition is a good
thing. Of course, Linux has at least one other ace in the hole. I think
the Linux kernel can actually utilize the noexec flag in AMD processors.
This will be a great benefit in preventing cracks from getting past square
one. Of course there are other areas where Linux excels in security,
but it really in the end comes down to how the end user uses and configures
the PC. And whether or not the user ever patches the software.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Monty J. Harder 
> 
> "Brian Densmore" wrote:
> 
> 
> > So I guess the pertinent question is, are Linux IM clients 
> susceptible
> > to this kind of <spellingnazi> virii </spellingnazi>? That 
> is of course
> > assuming some enterprising young cracker writes one for 
> Linux systems?
> > Of course if I was a cracker, I'd write cross-platform 
> virii, and have
> friendly
> > download pop-ups letting the user choose the proper poison pellet.
> 
>   In theory, a Linux IM client with any kind of hooks for 
> plugins would be
> vulnerable to this sort of thing, but you have the additional 
> hoops to jump
> through of getting the user to download the malware, make it 
> executable, and
> then execute it.  (Think back to the discussion of 
> automounting removable
> filesystems; as long as they are mounted noexec, there are no serious
> security issues.)  Even the Windows version required you to 
> install the
> plug-in.
> 
> 
> 
>