-=> Mocking Denis Moreaux to Kurt Wismer <=-
   
 KW> viruses tend not to try to do useful things... and as far as what
 KW> they'll do on a linux platform, it would be rather unpleasant for all
 KW> but those simple generic boot infectors... one_half would definitely
 KW> cause a lot of problems...
 DM> By the conception of Linux, No BOOT viruses can remain resident...
which is exactly why one_half would cause problems... since it isn't
resident it can't decrypt the encrypted sectors on the fly...
i'm fully aware that boot infectors designed for dos platforms won't
spread from a linux machine (unless possibly if theres a disk in the
drive and the boot priority had been changed in the cmos and the virus
were capable of taking advantage of that - rare but not impossible)...
 DM> from it... A minor DOS virus check will remove it from the 
 DM> boot record...
which is probably the reason mcafee made their linux virus checker, so
that people wouldn't need extraneous boot disks for operating systems
that they no longer use...
 DM> Linux specific viruses can't spread on the system except 
 DM> for the security holes. And the task of a good UN*X 
 DM> administrator is to remove these holes...
 DM> If the process if not executed by root (and root should
 DM> only be used to setup the system, not to run applications) 
 DM> it can't do much damage...
ooooh... damage control...
i'd prefer damage prevention... avoiding the use of root isn't good
enough for that...
... today's mock has been brought to you by the letters p, u, and # pi...
--- Maximus 2.02
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