Antivirus Software for Linux?

[aravind]

Hi,

Is Norton Antivirus / McAfee compatible with Knoppix? If not, which other package is best for Knoppix?

[Stephen]

Hi,

Is Norton Antivirus / McAfee compatible with Knoppix? If not, which other package is best for Knoppix?

You do not need anti-virus software for Linux that's a windows problem.

[Hunkah]

Even if it is a windows only problem, there are times that a version for linux would be great... like say if you couldn't boot into windows and wanted to do a virus scan and git rid of some crittas, then knoppix would be the best tool for the job raite?!!!

[Henk Poley]

Saying it is a pure Microsoft Windows problem is almost bullshit, but it is about 99% true. non-Windows viruseses are very rare.

There are virusscanners that run under Linux though. They mostly scan for Window viruses. This (obvious) Google search gives you a nice list:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=linux+%22virus+scanner%22

[Stephen]

Saying it is a pure Microsoft Windows problem is almost bullshit, but it is about 99% true. non-Windows viruseses are very rare.



Maybe you should add the extra 5 9's on there (as in the uptime on a linux/unix system for example) eg. 99.99999% with probably more 9's on the end for the extent of windows problem as compared to any possible "problems" with linux.

[Hunkah]

Yah, well my dad can beat up your linux!

[Stephen]

Yah, well my dad can beat up your linux!
Just goes to show never feed the trolls :?

[Henk Poley]

Sorry for the "dumb statistics". I should probably have said that all the in-the-wild virusses (you know, virusses that are actually spread right now) for anything non-windows is currently 0. And as you hopefully know that number is more like 10 for windows, if you only count very common virusses (millions of hosts infected), and a couple of hundreds if you also count virusses that are still spread but less common. Most of the latter kind are the highly virulent virusses like Code Red, Blaster/LoveSan, etc.

Sometimes there is a virus that infects for example Linux hosts, as far as I know the last time that has happened on a 'major' scale (couple of thousands of hosts infected) was with some Suse 6.x version (we are talking somewhere around 1999) that ran a vulnerable service (ftp?) that was only active when you said you wanted a fileserver (opt-in).

Sometimes saying "99%" is easier than all this chitchat... :-/

[buxus]

F-Prot

http://www.f-prot.com/

knx-live-inst_0.1-3.tar.gz

http://www.computer-ag.de/download/knoppix/knx-live-inst_0.1-3.tar.gz

F.Franz' `knx-live-inst.sh' is an utility helps installing some programs (also F-Plot) into $HOME.

[monkeyman]

Excellent advice, buxus. I would just add that because an infected file can't infect you doesn't mean that the infection disappears. Passing an infection on to your momz who uses Win9x would not make you a hero, if you know what I mean. :wink:

[stonent]

ClamAV (open source) runs on linux. I think they could put that on knoppix and load the definitions into a ramdisk so you could sync it up to the newest version and scan Windows systems.

[Hunkah]

Maybe you should add the extra 5 9's on there (as in the uptime on a linux/unix system for example) eg. 99.99999% with probably more 9's on the end for the extent of windows problem as compared to any possible "problems" with linux.

The reason why I said what I said was because of what you said.



WOW, linux is soooo cool, that you need to make sure that everyone knows that linux cannot be beaten. Windows sucks and linux is the king. Yah we all have heard it.

Yet windows continues to domminate the market. Windows has killed Novell, Mac, and the others (Though, are rising from the ashes and re-grouping/joining linux/*nix). But still, to a linux user, they refuse to see that truth. Linux still needs to grow and it still has a few years to mature before it is going to be any REAL threat to windows.
I am just sick of hearing this crap that linux is the savior of the world and petty little things like adding .99999 to the end of linux is just immature. That is why I said an equally immature comment.

Trolls are usually wise, so I accept that complement. Only I don't have one for you.

[aay]

To sum up some of the comments of others (Stephen) you only need a virus scanner on linux if you use it to scan windows boxes or are using it in conjunction with a mail server to scan email (again email going to windows boxes). If you do not fall into one of these two scenerios, then you're wasting your time with the virus scanner.

[stonent]

Just because you don't have windows systems doesn't mean you can't spread viruses. You could get an e-mail attatchment that you can't open that you forward to someone else who has windows who opens it. Plus virus infected e-mails coming in just waste space. Scrubbing them is a big help. (My yahoo account gets filled up with 6mb of "Latest Microsoft Security Patch" each day.

[Stephen]

(My yahoo account gets filled up with 6mb of "Latest Microsoft Security Patch" each day.

Try Swendeleter (http://www.hashref.com/prj/swendeleter/) works great less filling in both flavors of the OS.

[Badgermc]

I just got started with Knoppix but I fear without my firewall and virus software running, my WinXP might get infected. I've just started witn Linux and can't give up everything from WinXP yet. I previously got burnt with Mandrake and have stayed away for a year. I'm back to try open source again but I just have some doubts about my security .

[aay]

I just got started with Knoppix but I fear without my firewall and virus software running, my WinXP might get infected. I've just started witn Linux and can't give up everything from WinXP yet. I previously got burnt with Mandrake and have stayed away for a year. I'm back to try open source again but I just have some doubts about my security .

Don't worry about viruses. Linux wont get infected and neither will XP (I'm assuming XP is on another partition and tuhs not running when Linux is running...of course we can't guarantee it won't be infected when XP itself is running :-)

Using a firewall is not a bad idea though. You might want to try Firestarter. apt-get install firestarter

[Badgermc]

I just got started with Knoppix but I fear without my firewall and virus software running, my WinXP might get infected. I've just started witn Linux and can't give up everything from WinXP yet. I previously got burnt with Mandrake and have stayed away for a year. I'm back to try open source again but I just have some doubts about my security .

Don't worry about viruses. Linux wont get infected and neither will XP (I'm assuming XP is on another partition and tuhs not running when Linux is running...of course we can't guarantee it won't be infected when XP itself is running :-)

Using a firewall is not a bad idea though. You might want to try Firestarter. apt-get install firestarter

Thanks for the firewall advice. I just run knoppix from the CD and see my hard drive lite come on. I just wondered why my drive is being acessed.

[Stephen]

Thanks for the firewall advice. I just run knoppix from the CD and see my hard drive lite come on. I just wondered why my drive is being acessed.

Do you already have a /swap partition on the drive if so Knoppix will use it by default.

[Badgermc]

I don't have a Linux partition just the Win swap file.




Thanks for the firewall advice. I just run knoppix from the CD and see my hard drive lite come on. I just wondered why my drive is being acessed.

Do you already have a /swap partition on the drive if so Knoppix will use it by default.