![]() The large number of different software configuration certainly makes it harder for adversaries to produce malware that is compatible with a bigger fraction of these configurations. The graph shows an overview of these Linux distributions 480 in total by October 2012, not considering that even within the same distribution, different versions are used in practice. Not only the kernel itself, but also the software stack on top of it comes in the form of hundreds of different Linux distributions. Not only are there various different standard versions that are currently in use, some distributions also use a customized version of the Linux kernel.Ī survey, which gathered data concerning the different Linux kernel versions used on Linux servers, showed that there were almost 1,300 different Linux kernel version distributed among the roughly 20,000 Linux servers included in the survey. One reason why the number of Linux malware programs is relatively small might be the large number of existing Linux kernel versions. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, Linux users might receive and save (malicious) file attachments on their Linux machine and act as a vector for Windows malware. Nevertheless, Linux desktops are not completely safe either, as there exists also cross-platform malware and phishing is a threat for any operating system. Therefore, Anti-Virus software is mostly needed on Linux file and mail servers. Most Linux-malware targets the server space, not desktops. Malware for Linux systems GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline 2012 Some vendors informed us that the next release version of their products – which will be released in the near future – would also include support for newer Linux distributions. ![]() We have reviewed the following products for this report, using the newest version available in spring 2015:Īt the time this review was written, several Linux security products did not support the latest Ubuntu LTS version (released in April 2014). some basic Linux knowledge is assumed, since every product requires the usage of the Linux terminal at some point. The report is targeted at Linux users, i.e. Only if a vendor does not offer a home user version for Linux did we install the business version. ![]() ![]() We tried to focus on products targeted at home users. The aim of this report is to provide an overview of available antivirus products for Linux systems. CentOS is a distribution based the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution, but without the commercial support by Red Hat. We used CentOS to test Trend Micro’s Linux solution, since there are no Ubuntu versions available for their product. Ubuntu is a very popular distribution, with support and management packages available from Canonical, the manufacturer, making it suitable for business use. We mostly used Ubuntu Linux (details below) for our review and test. Researchers observed that Ebury had infected approximately 26,000 Linux servers since May 2013.Īnother reason for using an antimalware program on a Linux computer is to intercept any Windows malware before it can be passed on to a Windows system that it could infect. One of Windigo’s components – Ebury – provided attackers with a backdoor to infected servers and the ability to steal SSH credentials and send spam mails. Linux malware does exist, even if the number of programs is small for example, in March 2014, ZDNet reported the discovery of the cybercrime campaign “Operation Windigo”. In reality, the situation is not so simple. Linux operating systems are often considered to be immune to malware attacks, which would mean that antivirus software for Linux would be redundant.
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