Re: Looking for some website which installs spyware on Linux

From: NeoSadist (neosad1st_at_charter.net)
Date: 12/09/03 

Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:45:09 -0700

SPAM SPAM wrote:

>
> Well, isn't UNIX the original and Linux just a clone, similar to
> Java/Flash being an original and ActiveX a clone?

Yes, but Linux is now in its own right. It uses standards that everything
else unix is built on, but it isn't unix. It's not really a "clone"
either, although it was patterned after unix (clone would denote "wanna-be"
and "sucks" in my opinion, neither of which is linux).

>
> Well, okay. There is sure a lot less satisfaction for the poisoner to
> target Linux/Unix since too few people are using it. However, it seems
> to be very interesting for Crackers to break into Linux/Unix machines.

Yes, and also the file system on Linux/Unix is much more secure: you must be
root (admin) to install things, therefore the likelihood is smaller. Don't
get me wrong, nothing is unhackable. However, like I said, the likelihood
is less.

>
> Well, in pre-XP days when most people did run 3.1, 95 or 98 there was no
> security at all, now since XP is getting more widespread there should be
> a security concept. But why do people still get infected?

Because Microsoft has not fixed the ROOT of the problem. It's too easy for
a normal user to install things. See, here's why. In any operating system
(or at least any well-designed operating system) all programs that a user
runs use that person's permissions. If you're not admin/root, things
shouldn't be allowed to have those permissions. It's a security issue:
unix/linux is built for security, windows is not (as of yet). I will say
that windows 2000 is the best windows version put out as of yet, until we
see windows 2003/longhorn. Anyways, with windows it's still possible for
the normal user to install things, which is most of which activex allows:
it allows the installation of programs.

>
> Why do people log onto their machines with superuser priviledges? Or is
> it a conceptual problem of the respective OS?

Well with windows, most users are lazy and don't want to install things as
admin and then log back out and log in as a user to run them. Also, not
all windows applications work well that way (they don't understand the
multi-user concept). It could also be a conceptual problem with
windows/microsoft, due to the way activex works.

>
> Even trivial web pages like the following can cause harm
> Warning IE - Users: DO NOT EVEN THINK OF CLICKING ONTO THIS LINK!
> http: // www.raus.de / crashme <--- remove the blanks!
> Users of Mozilla with popups blocked: don't care, it is safe for you!
> [[ No virus, just a crazy javascript ]]
>
> However, I use UNIX/Linux since '86 and I never had any contact with any
> mail or webpage containing some virus which I could execute on my
> machine or which did any harm to the operating system itself. Well,
> pages like the above can confuse my browser, but a kill from a text
> console later, it is gone. And that page above was the badest experiance
> I ever had.
>
> So I am still looking for web sites / mails which crash my OS.
>
> W.F
> wfor at arcor dot de

The above are my personal opinions. 

-- 
New Hampshire law forbids you to tap your feet, nod your head, or in
any way keep time to the music in a tavern, restaurant, or cafe.

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