Dream for a Virus. Review on Caldera OpenLinux

For all most all people those who are using computer directly (sometime indirectly ) computer virus is a very annoying thing, and everyone wants to keep their systems to be free of virus. Otherwise, sometime, it will create hell of problems for them.

We know very well what damages can be done by a computer virus to the system and there are thousand and millions types of viruses presented till date. In fact the number is getting double every two years.

For a common user it?s hard to believe that almost all the viruses are Windows OS originated, and there are hardly any viruses in case of LINUX/UNIX system. Now I want to give a brief description way it's just impossible for a virus to attack a LINUX system.

Since I am a user of Caldera, I find easy to write its guard against viruses. But this article is general to all LINUX operating system. To my surprise I never meet with a Linux virus till now.

Before knowing why viruses are ineffective in case of a LINUX system. Lets have a look how LINUX systems guard against it; there are several reasons, most of those reason a Linux user would already be familiar with, but there is one, all important, reason that can be appreciated by all.

For Linux binary virus to infect a executable, the executable must be writable by the user activating the virus. That is not likely to be the case. Chances are, the programs are owned by root and the user is running from a non-privileged account. Further, if the user is less experienced then the chances get lowered that he actually owns any executable programs (other than its own programs).

Even if the virus successfully infects a program owned by the user, its task or effectiveness of propagation is made much more difficult by the limited privileges of the user account.

The next thing is Linux networking programs are conservatively constructed, without the high-level macro facilities that have enabled the recent Windows viruses to propagate so rapidly. This is not an inherent feature of Linux; it is simply a reflection of the differences between the two user bases and the resulting differences between the products that are successful in those markets.

Another important thing to be notice, LINUX applications and system software is almost all open source. This has there effects on the virus;

First, open source code is a tough place for a virus to hide.

Second, for the binary-only virus, a newly compiled installation cuts off a prime propagation vector.

Third, it?s not just only another business of software where people will try to make money by preparing an ANTIVIRUS s/w.

A computer virus, just like a biological virus, must have a reproduction rate that exceeds its death rate in order to spread. Each of the above obstacles significantly reduces the reproduction rate of the Linux virus.

The reason that we have not seen a real Linux virus plague in the wild is simply that none of the existing Linux viruses can thrive in the unfriendly environment that Linux provides. The Linux viruses that exist today are nothing more than technical curiosities; the reality is that there is no viable Linux virus. But this doesn't mean that there can never be a Linux virus outbreak, the simple reason is LINUX people are now eying on constructive destructions.

Note:

Bliss is the only Linux-compatible virus seen in the wild.

Staog is the first known Linux virus