can the same kind of virus infect linux and windows? or does it have to be a completely different code to infect the other?
ex.. if someone wrote a virus to infect a windows system, if that same virus was unleashed in linux will it have the same effect?
2007-09-08 07:21:23 · 7 answers · asked by makavelli405 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
Pretty much, no...
on windows it will look for EXE's but linux doesnt have any
on linux the executables are dynamically linked which means that the "guts" are too different for a change to work
on windows a path to something important would be c:\windows
on linus it would be something like /usr/sbin
on windows to do basic script-kiddy damage would be del *.* (delete everything)
on linux that would be rm -r *
It would be very difficult to write something that would do anything significant on both systems. Thats why I use windows to play my games and stuff but I use linux to do all my internet stuff like browse or read emails. I continually look at the things that they try to slip me and I can laugh at them becuase they just sit there and let me look at what they planned and how they planned to do it.
2007-09-11 15:03:15 · answer #1 · answered by Gandalf Parker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In most cases, the answer is no. There are ways around it.
On a basic level, all "machine-compiled programs" plug into an operating system's kernel. If you imagine this kernel like a catalogue-order company - eg. in the UK we have Argos. You go in, give them a number from the catalog, and they fetch the product.
If you go into a different store, say, Index, with the same number, they will either laugh at you because you've brought in the wrong type of number, or if the numbers look similar they might bring you back a product that was wildly different to what you saw in the other catalog!
There are a few ways around this. "Wine" is a program that translates windows' numbers to a their linux equivalents before sending them to the kernel. Where there are pieces of code that only windows programs need, it provides those too.
A second, more worrying way, involves so-called "Machine independant" languages. Notice I said above about machine-compiled languages? Well, imagine you have your own personal shopping assistant standing outside each of these shops. Instead of a number, you tell them "Ironing Board, blue" and they go in and find the item in the catalog for you. It doesn't matter which shop you approach, because provided you can install one of these assistants, your command will work.
Examples that work like this, again, fall into two catagories: Java and Flash are examples of compiled languages, whereas TCL and PHP are examples of scripting languages. With compiled languages, you are effectively giving them another, shop-independent number, whereas scripting languages let you talk a little more naturally.
Another way is Virtualisation. I won't go into that - it's the equivalent of having a shop that sells shops!! Most people don't want to buy a shop just to buy an ironing board.
BUT: The thing that makes viruses move about so easily is that they usually sit where they can't be found, and get started up with your computer. Even compiled machine-independent languages tend to be larger than machine-dependant ones, and they can't hide their process name quite as easily. Your wine installation can be corrupted with a virus, but that does not start up and shut down with the computer so the virus has a very limited scope.
So yes, it is possible that a virus could be made that doesn't distinguish between windows and linux. But it wouldn't get too far!
2007-09-10 06:42:30 · answer #2 · answered by MattyB 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Typically no. However, java-script and java programs are universally accepted on both platforms. Executing a "virus" or "bug" theoretically seems possible to me.
And even though Linux can run windows apps via the W.i.n.e. API, as Jordan Z mistakenly overlooked, I'm not really sure what possible threats are out there
2007-09-08 07:44:10 · answer #3 · answered by Kris_B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree that xp is possibly the fashionable- its been around a protracted time. assorted Linux variations (distributions) have made some large leaps in direction of consumer-friendliness interior the final couple years. i take advantage of Ubuntu 9.10. i think of its the simplest Linux I even have ever considered. certainly- its lots much less complicated to apply than abode windows xp. that's somewhat diverse, yet no longer adequate to make it complicated. Google Chrome (Linux) is due out quickly. it will be loose. i think of the OS international is approximately to alter. it may take some years, yet i've got self assurance that abode windows will substitute into purely yet another selection as a substitute of "the" OS.
2016-10-10 05:04:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably not because the code is different...hence why linux can't run windows programs...and the directory structure and file system are different as well....So if the virus is to corrupt system files...they are stored in totally different places on the two operating systems.
2007-09-08 07:28:00 · answer #5 · answered by Jordan Z 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No. Viruses are file system dependent. windows viruses cannot affect linux or mac os. also, even though there are few exploits for mac os, there are next to none if any for linux because of the many different distributions and kernels.
2007-09-08 07:27:46 · answer #6 · answered by The_Amish 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It needs to be different code.
LINUX and UNIX are safer as hackers don't want to spend all the time on writing a virus for systems that are not used as much as windows.
2007-09-08 07:30:32 · answer #7 · answered by Timoc 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋