[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: mail trojans in linux



> Hi
> 
> I saw the following news item in linux today:
> 
> http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-09-07-008-20-SC
> 
> The story (from VNUnet) is about a new linux trojan. A quote from it:
> 
>   The so-called Remote Shell Trojan spreads through email as well as
>   replicating itself across the infected system
> 
> Is there any linux mail client that doesn't make it hard to execute
> executable attachments from mail messages? (and if so: why is anybody
> using this mail client?)
> 
> If not: are such trojas an issue at all?
> 


I believe that such Trojan might be an issue, depending on the users behavior. 
A simple example would be to send you a game which will just increase the load 
of your system, without doing any real work. Although in most cases it is less 
harmful then replacing some executable with another, it is still annoying.
I guess that more damage then this can be made, even on user space.
In short, a UNIX machine can not replace a cautious user: Users should take 
care of the executables they are running and, (of course?) not run as root.


> [ Please avoid making this an ms-bashing thread. I hope linux program
> authors have learned from the design mistakes of Apple and MS with respect
> to this specific issue. A mail client should allow the user to "view" a
> document, not "open" it. Or at least it should make a very clear
> seperation between the two. The basic design of apple, extended by MS to
> mail clients, does not have this distinction. OTOH unix has long had
> mailcap. ]
> 
> -- 
> Tzafrir Cohen
> mailto:tzafrir@technion.ac.il
> http://www.technion.ac.il/~tzafrir
> 
> 
> 
> =================================================================
> To unsubscribe, send mail to linux-il-request@linux.org.il with
> the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command
> echo unsubscribe | mail linux-il-request@linux.org.il
> 

-- 

	Shaul Karl <shaulka@bezeqint.net>



=================================================================
To unsubscribe, send mail to linux-il-request@linux.org.il with
the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command
echo unsubscribe | mail linux-il-request@linux.org.il