On Sunday 28 December 2008 05:09:45 Dinesh Joshi wrote:
On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 2:47 AM, Nagarjuna G.
nagarjun@gnowledge.org wrote:
The possibility of virus in a Unix machine is possible in only one condition: all the applications are running as super user. But, this situation actually defeates the very idea of a multi-user design.
Not really. You could have a remote buffer overflow exploit for the iptables code running your firewall. A properly crafted packet would wreak havoc. A simple program running as a normal unprivileged could have a exploit that could escalate the user's previledges. Infact all or most buffer overflow exploits exist due to this.
You are confusing the matter. buffer overflow error is not a virus. I did not say anything about that topic.
Therefore, it is correct to say that Unix OSs are practically
immune
No that would be too arrogant to say. Many Linux boxes get compromised everyday all over the world but they're quickly identified since *nix admins are inherently more knowledgeable than their non *nix counter parts.
Again, those compromises are not because of Virus.
M$ is not using a known invention (25 year old, even before their company is born) for the benifit of human kind. Therefore they a are actually liable to be sued for the crime they are committing for not providing the benifits of computer science to their customers.
Heck UNIX model isn't the best that there is. Infact there are far superior kernels out there. Check out L3 / L4 kernels. They'll beat the crap out of any microkernel. They're far more secure than the Linux kernel. Theres L4 Linux which runs Linux kernel in userspace on top of L4 kernel. UNIX is mature but definitely not the best :)
You miss the point agian. I did not even say that Unix is best. I only said that scientific advancements made, as old as 25yrs, are not used by that company for the benifit of humanity. Forget about the latest ones. This is to demonstrate that they do not have minimal social committment. The argument I made is to show that they are not complying to ethics.