Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:03:20 +0200 From: lars <lars@gmx.at> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Spyware on FreeBSD? Message-ID: <42D54958.7080800@gmx.at> In-Reply-To: <01cd01c587ca$bbfc12d0$c901a8c0@workdog> References: <01cd01c587ca$bbfc12d0$c901a8c0@workdog>
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Gayn Winters wrote: > I was wondering if anyone had had any trouble with spyware on their > FreeBSD systems, or if we are too small a group of consumers for the > spyware vendors to attack? So far I don't think I have spyware on my machine, but since I don't strictly monitor my net traffic and since I haven't reviewed the source code of my installed programs (or the FreeBSD source, for that matter) I don't know for sure. > How immune is a FreeBSD system from spyware? As secure as the "weakest" software you're running on it. > For sure, we should all be > following the standard advice of NEVER surfing the web using the root > account! But you probably install software with root privileges. > Thus a modification of this question is: if we do not surf the > web using root, can we still get infected with spyware? Yes, if the software you use has a vulnerability and yes, if the software you're installing has spyware in it, then it will be installed with the privileges you use for installation. Regards, lars.
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