Linux and Spywares - lack of reading

Robin Laing Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Thu Feb 17 15:36:47 UTC 2005


Nigel Wade wrote:
> jdow wrote:
> 
>> Of course you do know of the recent exploits found for Mozilla, aren't
>> you, Brian? What's this "No antivirus needed" I hear about for Linux?
>>
> 
> First of all, that's not a Linux virus, or a Linux anything. It's a 
> fault in the browser and affects Windows just as much as Linux.
> 
> Secondly, it's not a virus. No amount of Linux or Windows anti-virus 
> software will protect you against it. It requires a patch to the 
> browser, which is likely to happen much quicker from Mozilla than it 
> would from Microsoft (who would no doubt have kept the information quiet 
> in the hopes that they could just ignore it, until it eventually leaked 
> to the press and they had to do something about it pronto).
> 
> 
It doesn't affect all versions of IE.  It requires the Internalization 
plugin to be installed first.

You were right to point out that this is not a virus or trojan but a 
problem with trust and lack of knowledge.  It is a fair exploit of a 
feature that was poorly implemented.

It made the press as it was a flaw first noticed in Mozilla and 
Firefox, as well as Opera or any browser designed for tomorrows usage. 
  The IE supporters jumped on the problem (I won't use flaw as it 
really isn't).  Of course they will ignore the unfixed holes in IE.

-- 
Robin Laing




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