How safe am I from viruses while browsing the web?

[lisati]

My basis for saying so is that my bank account and various financial assets which I access online are unaffected over the years.

Likewise here.

The only suspicious online activities I recall experiencing over the years that could potentially compromise my various financial assets were the occasional phishing attempts by email. Even though they're getting better, there's usually some clue that something's a bit off, and it usually has little, if anything, to do with XSS attacks.

[HermanAB]

Hmm, some level of paranoia is good, but too much of it, is a waste of time.

Therefore, relax and enjoy your safe and secure Linux machine!

[halogen2]

I'm using Chrome right now. Do people get hit with XSS attacks very often, or is it a rare thing?

I don't think it's that common. Most of the examples I've seen are poorly designed sites deliberately doing it to themselves. If I'm remembering right, the only real XSS attacks I've seen involved ad servers.

This stuff is less likely to be problematic if you use an isolated browser session to visit sensitive sites. That is, completely quit the browser before and after visiting the sensitive site, and don't visit other sites even in other tabs.

For Chrome, if you want to protect yourself, start with uBlock Origin and uBlock Origin Extra. That should prevent adserver/webbug based shenanigans. It's even better if you enable the malware domains subscriptions in uBlock Origin.

If you're an advanced user you will really benefit from adding uMatrix as well.

[jonathan90]

I don't think it's that common. Most of the examples I've seen are poorly designed sites deliberately doing it to themselves. If I'm remembering right, the only real XSS attacks I've seen involved ad servers.

This stuff is less likely to be problematic if you use an isolated browser session to visit sensitive sites. That is, completely quit the browser before and after visiting the sensitive site, and don't visit other sites even in other tabs.

For Chrome, if you want to protect yourself, start with uBlock Origin and uBlock Origin Extra. That should prevent adserver/webbug based shenanigans. It's even better if you enable the malware domains subscriptions in uBlock Origin.

If you're an advanced user you will really benefit from adding uMatrix as well.

Thanks! I mean in general, do you think I'm safe on Linux if I'm browsing one of those spammy sites? I mean survey/free gift card sites, or something of that sort.

[ardouronerous]

For Chrome, if you want to protect yourself, start with uBlock Origin and uBlock Origin Extra. That should prevent adserver/webbug based shenanigans. It's even better if you enable the malware domains subscriptions in uBlock Origin.

If you're an advanced user you will really benefit from adding uMatrix as well.

For Chromium, I have Disconnect, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger, Ghostery and uBlock Origin installed, what additional protection does uBlock Origin Extra provide?

For Firefox, I have Ghostery, Disconnect, HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript, Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin installed, is there anything else I should install on Firefox?

[halogen2]

I mean in general, do you think I'm safe on Linux if I'm browsing

In general, not unless you've taken steps to protect yourself. Start with the aforementioned Chrome extensions. For better protection of your computer, run your browser in a firejail sandbox.

what additional protection does uBlock Origin Extra provide?

Basically it prevents websites circumventing uBlock Origin. For more info see its readme.

is there anything else I should install on Firefox?

You've got the essentials, but you might want to look into NoRedirect.

Also, if you're an advanced user, uMatrix.

[ardouronerous]

In general, not unless you've taken steps to protect yourself. Start with the aforementioned Chrome extensions. For better protection of your computer, run your browser in a firejail sandbox.

How do I do this?

Basically it prevents websites circumventing uBlock Origin. For more info see its readme.

Thanks for the info, I'll be installing this on Chromium, and apparently this is not necessary for Firefox, so no Firefox add-on.

You've got the essentials, but you might want to look into NoRedirect.

Unfortunately NoRedirect is not compatible with Firefox 54.0.

Also, if you're an advanced user, uMatrix.

I've tried uMatrix and it was very difficult to use and understand, I find NoScript easier. What's the difference between uMatrix and NoScript? Because reading the comments, uMatrix is an alternative to NoScript.

[halogen2]

How do I do this?

First install firejail -

sudo apt-get install firejail

Then

firejail chromium-browser

If you want to use firejail's --overlay-tmpfs option, you might need to disable Chromium's sandbox to get it to start -

firejail --overlay-tmpfs chromium-browser --no-sandbox

What's the difference between uMatrix and NoScript?

Pretty much everything other than script blocking. Good explanation in this NoScript forum thread.

Because reading the comments, uMatrix is an alternative to NoScript.

Not unless you only care about blocking scripts.

[juan53]

Answering to the original post thread:

Fist of all you have to use a good web browser. Without any doubt, I recommend you to use Firefox.
Secondly, restrict the cookies aceptance. Deny third party cookies to be admited in your browser.
In third place, choose the option to clear browser history when each session ends.
Add a couple of extensions:
https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/noscript/
https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefo...ywhere/?src=ss
https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefo...an/?src=search

Choose one of them:
https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefo...17/?src=search (it might be a bit messiy)
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/

Finally, because you are supposed to run a Ubuntu system, install and enable AppArmor's profile for this browser:
sudo apt install apparmor-profiles
sudo apt install apparmor-utils
sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.firefox
(note that if you are running the gnome variant and you want to install gnome extensions in your system, AppArmor will prevent you from doing that, then you have to put the profile in complain mode (sudo aa-complain /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.firefox) or to modify the profile.

I hope that you find it useful.

[TheFu]

There is no replacement for a smart end-user. Installing some "security" addon, plugin, software, then still performing risky behaviors is a good way to discover a new, previously unseen, attack first hand.

Security is about limiting exposure and mitigation of risks. A smart, informed, user is required.

If you visit a website that causes a Windows virus to be run AND your Linux computer has the WINE subsystem installed, what will happen? Sometimes it will do what the virus maker intended. Being on Linux isn't always a prophylactic.

There are Linux specific attacks too, but these generally require a user to run server software like wordpress or mysql. For a typical end-user who avoids the spammy, nasty, parts of the internet, the risks are minimal, provided they
* don't do stupid things
* routinely patch and
* routinely make versioned backups.

Versioned backups are still the number #1 security technique.
Versioned backups allow
* recovery from any possible hardware, software or corruption issues.
* ability to see any changes made from backup to backup version. Analysis of those changes is extremely helpful in determining how an issue happened, where it started, and probably how to prevent the issue from happening again.