Ubuntu

ubuntu viruses

Asked by alvaro

untu is very similar and compatible with windows on certain aspects as the intuitive interface for example, will be the target of many viruses in the future?

is there any ubuntu especific virus known?

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Jim Hutchinson
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Best Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#1

Hard to predict the future, but the security model in Unix like systems (like Linux and max OSX) is much better than with windows. I wouldn't say you are 100% safe, but I think the probability is too small to really worry about. As far as I know there are not any Linux viruses in the wild. I've been using Ubuntu for 3 years now and have never used any AV software and have never had any issues with any malware of any kind. Gotta love Linux for that.

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alvaro (alvaro-rincon) said : 		#2

Thanks Jim Hutchinson, that solved my question.

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#3

Oh, one more thing. While the system will not allow a virus to download and run, that doesn't mean that someone couldn't trick you into running something. In general, don't give a password for a process to run unless you specifically meant to run it as root. No app should need to run as root under normal use. That said, I've also never had anything try to run on its own. Also be careful about adding unknown/untrusted repositories.