Hello, Ed.

Sunday August 17 2008 at 00:15, you wrote to Mimi Gallandt:

 EH> The nice thing about Linux is that there are no viruses or spyware
 EH> that effect it. That and it blows Vista/XP/etc. away.

The first sentence isn't /completely/ true.  The second sentence for me is
"to each their own"...although from a system administrator
standpoint and the one who has to babysit the Windows workstations at work,
they're a PITA to keep up with.

=== Cut ===
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_computer_viruses
(If you view the original article, there's references for nearly all of the
entries for the list below.)

Threats

The following is a partial list of known Linux malware:

Trojans

    * Kaiten - Linux.Backdoor.Kaiten trojan horse[5]
    * Rexob - Linux.Backdoor.Rexob trojan[6]

Viruses

    * Alaeda - Virus.Linux.Alaeda[7]
    * Bad Bunny - Perl.Badbunny[4][8]
    * Binom - Linux/Binom[9]
    * Bliss
    * Brundle[10]
    * Bukowski[11]
    * Diesel - Virus.Linux.Diesel.962[12]
    * Kagob a - Virus.Linux.Kagob.a[13]
    * Kagob b - Virus.Linux.Kagob.b[14]
    * MetaPHOR (also known as Simile)[15]
    * Nuxbee - Virus.Linux.Nuxbee.1403[16]
    * OSF.8759
    * Podloso - Linux.Podloso (The iPod virus)[17][18]
    * Rike - Virus.Linux.Rike.1627[19]
    * RST - Virus.Linux.RST.a[20]
    * Satyr - Virus.Linux.Satyr.a[21]
    * Staog
    * Vit - Virus.Linux.Vit.4096[22]
    * Winter - Virus.Linux.Winter.341[23]
    * Winux (also known as Lindose and PEElf[24]
    * ZipWorm - Virus.Linux.ZipWorm[25]

Worms

    * Adm - Net-Worm.Linux.Adm[26]
    * Adore[27]
    * Cheese - Net-Worm.Linux.Cheese[28]
    * Devnull
    * Kork[29]
    * Linux/Lion (also known as Ramen)
    * Mighty - Net-Worm.Linux.Mighty[30]
    * Millen - Linux.Millen.Worm[31]
    * Slapper[32]
    * SSH Bruteforce[33]
=== Cut ===

However, there's less malware for Linux than Windows simply because of the
nature of the OS itself and how it operates.  Several of the
above-mentioned viruses are "proof-of-concept", but several are
in the wild (see http://www.wildlist.org in the "Other" catagory
in their monthly listings).

If Linux was truely immune, then ClamAV, AVG and Avast wouldn't exist for
the Linux platform. :)

Mainly, though, it's your servers that need protection rather than a Linux
end-user, especially mail servers.

We've got AV programs on several of our BSD servers at work just for that
reason.  They're quadruple firewalled from the public Internet, but they're
all protected "just in case".

Now with Windows, AV software is like the air we breathe-something you just
have to have.  I also run Spybot-Search & Destroy too as a preventative
measure on my Windows machines.  That's not so much for malware, but it
lets me see what programs are trying to mess with the registry, et al.

Later,
Sean

// nocturnalstatebbs{at}gmail.com | ICQ: 19965647 | http://nsbbs.info

... In suggesting gifts: money is appropriate and one size fits all. - Hearst
--- GoldED/2 3.0.1