Antivirus and Firewall

[Mic Q]

Is there such a thing as Firewall and Antivirus for Linux or is linux so secure that such is a no such need?

[robwelch100]

Yes there are those utilities out there but, viruses are very rare on linux machines. Security is of course a concern. Most of the viruses out there exploit windows weaknesses. Since windows uses a different file system and file structure, windows viruses have no effect on linux machines. Security is of greater concern and there are firewalls out there for linux. I don't use one. I have a firewall in my router. Someone else may be able to help you with a recommendation. As linux grows you can expect security to be a major concern. I found a review in Linux user and developer on Smoothwall express 2.0. it is free software go to www.smoothwall.org for more info.

[smitty_the_smith]

Right now Linux is too uncommon for the "Virus manufacturers" to be concerned with. And I haven't seen it in a knoppix distro yet. (yet) However if you are installing, rather than just the cd trick, you can install f-protect. It's an antivirus program for linux. Not sure how good it is.

[rrfish72]

3.7 has a firewall available on it. As does Kanotix BH8. Both excellent distros.

[user unknown]

afaik, all the antivirus software for linux is for running a samba-server, and protecting windows-machines from viruses.

In 8 years I had no virus on linux without running any antivirus software.

If you don't run some kind of server (ftpd, httpd, inetd, samba, ...), you needn't have a firewall too.

If there isn't a door, you don't need a doorkeeper.

[futfutfut]

Guarddog firewall is available with Klik. It gives me a "true stealth rating" at the grc shields up page-
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
In order to install the klik client, press Alt-F2 and paste:

wget klik.berlios.de/client/install -O -|sh

This will open a Konqueror window and let you install many different applications, including file sharing apps. I think this is about the only way to install software while running from the live-cd. Otherwise you need to do a hard drive install.

The nice thing about klik is that you can save apps to your persistant home directory, so you dont need to re-download them. Guarddog will even run from a saved config file, as long as you move the Guarddog folder from the knoppix folder to the desktop before saving the config file (remembering to check the box for saving all files on desktop), then you need to move the folder back to the knoppix folder on boot up to run it.

BTW you need to be root to set up the firewall

[Cuddles]

Guarddog firewall ... It gives me a "true stealth rating" at the grc shields up page-

I agree, I have the hard drive install, and GuardDog works perfectly... Not only does it, also, give me a complete "stealth" reading from the Gibson Research Web Site, but it was very easy to setup, considering I never worked with a firewall before Linux... The help is easy to read, simple for those who need it, but has the complexity for those who "know what they are doing" already.

As for the "being root" when you set it up, not that hard, mine just realizes that my "user" is not root, and asks for the "Administrator" password... So you want to have ( at least ) a root password set up to be able to enter it to make the config changes.

As for ease of use, after installing GuardDog, then running the configs, I never had to go back to it... It is truely, "set it and forget it" - half the time, I never know its running, and if it didnt say "starting GuardDog" at the boot, I'd never think it was running.

[weedje]

*EDIT*
Not needed anymore \o/

[shah]

That's a long one..

You don't have to compile.
Just apt-get install guarddog

[weedje]

That's a long one..

You don't have to compile.
Just apt-get install guarddog

Thanks for the tip, I tried that one, but it seems kinda hard to configure, so I took apt-get install firestarter instead :P easy to configure firewall...

weedje