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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Do you use an antivirus? Why, or why not? (lemmy.kde.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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With the increase popularity of the linux desktop and the steamdeck, will new viruses and malwares be developed for linux systems? should we better use an antivirus?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (14 children)

No, it's Linux.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Linux still can get viruses. Just not as likely

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The pattern of using managed repositories instead of downloading random shit off the internet prevents a lot of it outright.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just have to remember which repos are “managed” and which are not. Installing stuff from PyPi or NPM might actually require you to read through quite a lot of code before installing. I don’t think most people are that diligent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

yup, that's why i avoid it like the plague.

It's .deb's and .rpm's all the way down.

And sometimes flatpaks. And sometimes AppImages.

But never pips, gems or any of that sort of ...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup, and much of stuff is just common apps. A browser based exploit may not care which OS you're running Firefox/Chrome under (or Edge, I suppose if you're one of the dozen running that in Linux). The log4j vulnerability was first seen in Minecraft hosts and clients, and that equally affects those running on Linux. Steam has also had vulnerabilities in the past, as have various document editors.

That said, I really can't say there's any consumer-level antivirus that I'd trust to be effective on my desktop (especially without impacting performance) even on Windows, let alone Linux. If you really know what your box is doing and it doesn't change much you might consider SELinux rules etc, but those are a significant amount of work even for servers (which tend to behave more predictably).

Not using software from untrustworthy sources or visiting sketchy sites, plus some monitoring of your network traffic may be a more effective solution.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This (Also is there a service that audits code's maliciousness for me? I sometimes use some unfamous stuffs from github for gaming, customizing etc. As long as I don't give them a root permission I should be ok?)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

There are tools that do this but it's mostly for known issues or vulnerabilities (i.e. bad practice in coding or done after the fact). Some stuff runs code on at sandbox looking for sketchy behavior, but hackers may work around that by having malware that only activates in CD l specific circumstances or times.

There can also be "privilege escalation" exploits which can allow a rogue process to obtain root/admin, and even without the process would have full access to whatever the user does in terms of network/device/hardware/process access (or sudo, as applicable).

Not being able to run as root doesn't help all that much if the process is able to access sensitive saved data, files and/or the internet

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