unbelievable whats on manjaro website!

[sickpig]

Excerpt from Manjaro's website

"Linux systems are very secure and not affected by the huge amount of Windows viruses, trojans, worms or malware out there. Anti-virus software is not required."

not true, how can it be? i mean each and every statistic confirms that majority of the servers are running Linux. Even top 500 super computers are running Linux.

then how come no one is targeting them?

i think its misinformation

[sunrat]

Of course it's true, Linux is not affected by Windows nasties and antivirus programs are generally for Windows so useless for Linux.

Your excerpt doesn't say nobody is targeting Linux systems, the bad guys most certainly are but have a much harder time than with Windows.

[Bloom]

It has to do with architecture. The Windows architecture is such that malware can get started from almost any source and modify system files. In Linux, that's just not possible because the Linux architecture doesn't allow that.

[sickpig]

yes my excerpt, says anti-virus not required. Not true at all especially if you install from a source not in your distro's official repos. i still use clamav just to be safe.

[Ardouos]

It is not required for Linux, it is optional. Linux by design is inherently more secure than Windows for numerous reasons (leaving out obscurity); having no intentional backdoors is one of them.

IMO there is nothing wrong with ClamAV, it is a great tool. But by design it is mostly used for mail servers or gateways. I can also understand to an extent if you have Windows machines on the same network with shared resources.

Don't get me wrong, GNU/Linux systems are certainly not immune from malware, and there are some cases where there are security holes. But a lot of malware enters a users system due to a layer 8 issue, or lack of security updates.

[sickpig]

well calmav's virus database updates for every known malware or virus, OS independent.
Also, I am aware there are other LInux anti-virus apps but they all start startup daemons or systemd services which i would then have to disable as they would consume memory. i dont like that.
clamav is just fine for me, also i dont download or install anything which is not in official repository, so should b ok.

but the purpose of this post is - how shocking for a distro which is on no 2. on distrowatch to say that linux doesn't need antivirus!! on their official website

[Bloom]

Malware on Linux is indeed possible, but it requires a *lot* of cooperation from a foolish user.
First, the malware has to be written especially for Linux. Windows malware will not work.
Second, you have to convince the user to download an unknown program, make it executable and then execute it and even suppy their root/sudo password when asked.
Then and only then can you succesfully infect a Linux system with malware. That's a lot of conditions.
In Windows, just surfing to the wrong website without clicking on anything is enough to get infected with malware.

[sickpig]

nope u wrong, everything IOT, routers or even android is linux, albeit for android only the kernel is linux there is lot of java as well. but the point is internet works on linux, which is definitely not malware free

[arzgi]

No, you are wrong (just a side note, I'd hope you would write words, not single letter abbreviations). It's normal for novice linux users to think they need a virus scanner. I did install F-secures f-prot, what was that time free for linux, I don't know the current situtiation. For about one year did I run it, first almost every day, then once a week, never did it find anything.

Android is based on linux, so is for example Ubuntu based on Debian, but it is not Debian. Just use current stable (or newer if you are adventurous), sign up to security updates mailing list, update when security updates are available. And don't use third party repositiries, which you already mentioned.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

i still use clamav just to be safe.

That program just prevents your system from spreading viruses to Windows machines.

Also note that ClamAV cannot protect you against malicious snaps, poorly packaged software from foreign repositories or any other malware.

Windows viruses cannot affect Linux but there certainly is malware for it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware

Check this beauty:

https://scarybeastsecurity.blogspot.com ... sktop.html

And then there's stuxnet and other hardware-based exploits, LoJax and other UEFI rootkits[1] and all the Spectre & Meltdown class exploits that work directly through the browser.

For servers the exploits are generally targeted at the software directly and so bypass the operating system, even OpenBSD is vulnerable to those (if you're silly enough to run third-party software).

But none of these are "Windows viruses, trojans, worms or malware" so Manjaro's marketing BS is actually true, if somewhat disingenuous.

[GarryRicketson]

Postby sickpig » 2019-05-18 05:40
well calmav's virus database updates for every known malware or virus,--- snip -----

And that is why I wouldn't count on it to protect my system.
I does nothing for unknown malicious scripts, or viruses, if I wanted to cause problems, and trick you into downloading some malicious script, or even a virus, it would be easy, first I would create something new, and then when you checked it with your so called anti virus, it would not show, because it is new , and unknown,... Look at all the people that were tricked into using the mal ware included in the Intel chips,... clamav certainly did not tell them it was mal ware. IN fact Clamav will tell you a lot of malware is OK, and not mal ware, but it is, there is a lot of stuff out there that is mal ware, but popular, seems like most people like using malware, look at how many people use MS windows.

[sunrat]

... Look at all the people that were tricked into using the mal ware included in the Intel chips,...

Malware wasn't included in Intel chips. Intel just neglected to make the chips secure enough so certain vectors for possible attack were left open.

[GarryRicketson]

Ok thanks, for correcting me, also, I do realize many people do not consider ms windows mal ware, the point being clamav wouldn't detect anything if some one did access the Intel chip, via the

certain vectors for possible attack

...

[sickpig]

well linux is not virus free, anyone thinking otherwise chooses to be blissfully ignorant like Manjaro website
clamav website says it scans for all viruses not just windows ones. its a myth that it scans only windows ones.
https://www.lifewire.com/use-free-clama ... re-2202072
https://www.clamav.net

about snaps, the ones released by that product's official teams have never been reported to be malicious. so very safe and easy to install. bloated yes, but unsafe no.

also for the recent intel chip vulnerability not only clamav but no anti virus would be effective and that flaw is OS independent so no matter which os u r using if u have the affected intel chip u r vulnerable

@argzi i will spell however i like. u wrong.

[RU55EL]

"Linux systems are very secure and not affected by the huge amount of Windows viruses, trojans, worms or malware out there. Anti-virus software is not required."

This is essentially true. The only thing I would question is whether Anti-virus software is not required. I think that depends on how you use your computer. I don't use anti-virus software on any of my computers running Debian. But, I also am careful about exposing my computers to potential virus attacks. So, for me, anti-virus is not required. I have never used anti-virus software with Debian. And have never had a problem with Linux viruses.

Of course, any computers that I work with operating Windows alway have anti-virus software installed and running. I have had to restore computers running Windows several times over the years even with up to date anti-virus software and a religious updated operating system.

keep in mind that virus programs are only one type of attack that you have to worry about, as H_O_A_S has pointed out.