Anti-virus software?
Hello, I was wondering if anyone can recommend any good anti virus programs that would work well with Trisquel and Libreboot? Or,...is there a point to have antivirus software with this setup?
Well, viruses do not threaten GNU/Linux much (because it has less users, because its users tend not to run as root, not to install software in e-mail attachments, etc.). ClamAV can be installed but it almost exclusively targets Windows viruses. It makes sense to use it on an email server for instance.
Anyway, you can search for rootkits from time to time. "rkhunter" and "chkrootkit" are in Trisquel's repository. I run them from time to time... and never find anything (I have been using GNU/Linux for ~13-14 years).
david888, you honestly dnt need to worry which you are attacked against malware in a libre system like Parabola and us. You are here protected with full freedom which our RMS has guided us.
You could say that free software is a protection against malware that the developers of the software could implement. It is not a protection against third-party attacks (say a troyan installed without your knowledge after exploiting a vulnerability in a free software program you run).
The trojans are most likely run which you are running Wine and its frontends AS ROOT, you will be still vulnerable against m$win-targeted malware even though you are in a libre system.
Alongside Wine there is most likely not an explicit example you are down against malware in a libre system, right?
Wrong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware#Threats
Free software can have vulnerabilities. There is nothing magical in the free software definition that makes it not have vulnerabilities. Technically speaking, free and proprietary software are the same: software. In fact a same piece of software can be at the same time free and nonfree, if it is simultaneously distributed under a free software license and under a nonfree software license.
The rather low popularity of GNU/Linux is the main reason why there are not many viruses/troyans/worms targeting it. Then, there is the fact that GNU/Linux users usually not run as root, so the vulnerability must allow privileges escalation to be actually dangerous. More generally, GNU/Linux users often are tech-savvy what makes it harder to trick them into installing malware (e.g., in attachment of an email). Finally, it looks like free software generally has less vulnerabilities (but that is not a direct consequence of the software being free). For example, Apache is the most popular Web server and, yet, viruses/trojans/worms do not target it.
About Wine (which can be used to run free software that only exists for Windows): are there users running it as root? If so, why?
Linux-libre (mostly in PC) is very seldom to be affected and Linux embedded system (most of most nonfree Linux) is most likely in high risk, finally nonfree Linux in PC varies, rolling ones are less often, Debian is most secure overall LTS ones (esp disabling EVERY nonfree and contrib pools), Fedora needs to be most vulnerable which its releases are by every 0.5 years.
But of course our sense of cyber security is also an aspect against the Unix-like-targeted malware.
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>The rather low popularity of GNU/Linux is the main reason why there are not many viruses/troyans/worms targeting it.
I disagree on this point. Gnu/Linux's popularity is everything but low and there is certainly great incentive to write malware for it, there are hundreds of thousands of servers cracking which would be extremely profitable
But you have nailed it completely when you say
>Then, there is the fact that GNU/Linux users usually not run as root, so the vulnerability must allow privileges escalation to be actually dangerous.
Logic has it there are no viruses in the wild because of the great variety of distributions and packages versions and especially because as you point out writing a proper malware for GNU is no easy game.
dat my 2.15 cent..
Thanks guys! What about a firewall? Would I need that? Sorry, I'm new to this setup.
Thank you! I plan on using PIA since I've had a very good experience with them. Will there be any issues setting this up? I apologize for these newbie questions, Im very new to all this! lol
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You don't need one. I have to agree with senor Banana about rkhunter, only false positives, if any, but an anti-rootkit does make more sense to have installed..
Just make sure your software is updated and stick to ur repo and you'll be fine :)
firewall --
you already probably have ufw installed, if not
sudo apt-get install ufw
then just
sudo ufw enable
cheers
here's a good malware spyware bug chaser..
Window$ SWAT !
lol
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caaarazy dawg :P
hahaha ;-) that's me (on a good day)..
Yes !
cheers SuperTramp83 \o/
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cheers dawg le mange :)