Viruses in Ubuntu?

[ovroniil]

I've heard earlier that there is no chance of infecting viruses in Ubuntu or any other linux distro. But I got a wikipedia link where several antiviruses are listed for linux!

So is linux really fully protected from viruses?

[llamabr]

The only way to completely protect your system is to disconnect it from the web.

That said, linux file system, and system of permissions make it much more difficult for a user to infect the system. Additionally, since 90% of desktops run windows, people who write viruses don't write them for linux.

Additionally, a few of those listed there are actually linux apps to remove viruses on windows.

So, be vigalent, don't install anything you don't recognize, don't run commands you don't understand, have a firewall, and you shouldn't have to worry overmuch.

[SuperSonic4]

I should point out that this is common to GNU/Linux as a whole rather than Ubuntu

I believe they exist but have long been fixed or not even released into the wild.

As long as you're not an idiot you don't need an antivirus and if you were one would not save you

[berthiggins]

Although there are no known effective viruses for linux virus scanners are provided mainly to avoid passing viruses on to windows users for instance by e-mails etc.
For this reason they are more common on servers .

[jrothwell97]

Linux, and therefore, by extension, Ubuntu, is virtually virus-free at present. Linux anti-virus software is usually designed to search for Windows viruses, to ensure that any Windows viruses on your Ubuntu machine don't become a risk to any other Windows machines.

[mcduck]

There are no Linux viruses in the wild, and the few that even exist are mostly just proof-of-concepts that wouldn't survive in real world. Then there are couple of viruses that could be considered as real one, but depend on users having highly outdated versions of certain software (like Slapper).

There are two reasons for anti-virus apps being available for Linux:

1. May of them are for scanning for Windows viruses, for example to be used on a mail server to help protect Windows machines.

2. Profit. Anti-virus companies make money by selling their software, and would of course like to expand their market to contain Linux users as well. Many companies are telling us that while there are no viruses now, there might be in future and therefore we should buy their program. Of course the program will still only scan for Windows viruses since there's not much else to scan for.

Some people like to run antivirus on their Linux machines to protect their Windows systems, for example to avoid situations when they might move infected file from Linux to Windows. However, in my opinion, this is redundant as the Windows machine will have to run antivirus software anyway and thus should be able to protect itself.

The best protection for your Linux system is to simply install security updates when they are released. If you run an server applications that are open to the network you should configure a firewall as well, but for normal desktop use even that's optional.

[Bachstelze]

More info here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

Also, thread title edited so as to not spread FUD.

[colau]

I've heard earlier that there is no chance of infecting viruses in Ubuntu or any other linux distro. But I got a wikipedia link where several antiviruses are listed for linux!

So is linux really fully protected from viruses?

I think, there is no virus in Linux.

[halitech]

I think, there is no virus in Linux.

we wish that were true

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Virus

the do exist, just not really in the wild and are very limited what they can do if you did become infected

[ovroniil]

we wish that were true

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Virus

the do exist, just not really in the wild and are very limited what they can do if you did become infected

And I thought there is none!