OT: Linux Malware is possible? if it is :(

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Wednesday 02 December 2009 16:29:15 Frank Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-12-02 at 11:04 -0500, Richard Heck wrote:
> > As has been pointed out, however, serious damage can be done even if
> > the
> > cracker never gets root privileges.
> 
> Many people lose sight of the fact that their important data is in their
> home directory.

User's data is user's responsibility. No amount of technology and clever 
programming will help me if I do a "rm -rf ~" or tell someone the password for 
my bank account.

> If I lose /bin I can download and reinstall stuff to create it again.
> 
> If I lose my home directory, all of my data is gone and I can't just
> download it from some random ftp server and reinstall.

Losing != compromising. It would be stupid for an intruder to simply delete 
/bin. Instead, he will modify the binaries in order to gain sufficient control 
over the machine.

> Yet /bin is much better protected (from me) than my home directory.

If your home directory gets compromised, *your* data gets compromised.
If /bin gets compromised, *everyone's* data gets compromised. /bin is better 
protected from you than your home dir because you may not be the only user on 
the machine. While it is impossible to protect your own data from you, it *is* 
possible to protect data of *other* users from you (in case you get 
compromised). Linux is designed as a multiuser OS (unlike Windows), hence 
better protection for system files.

Best, :-)
Marko