OT: Linux Malware is possible? if it is :(
Marko Vojinovic
vvmarko at gmail.com
Thu Dec 3 00:06:29 UTC 2009
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
More information about the fedora-list
mailing list