Arch Linux

sweiss

Member

Registered: 2004-02-16

Posts: 635

Re: Virus paranoia

Sudo really isn't that difficult to set up.
Anyway, as for the viruses - Linux is somewhat safer by design. The fact that files are not executable by default already makes it pretty difficult for viruses to get in and be activated.

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Some PKGBUILDs: http://members.lycos.co.uk/sweiss3

unixlust

Member

From: Sebes, Romania

Registered: 2007-01-12

Posts: 31

Re: Virus paranoia

Even sudo isn't necessary in my opinion. I just do for example: su -c 'pacman -Syu'

I was needing this command forever. I guess I should have read the man page. sudo is a pain in the butt to set up and use imho.

I've written an article some time ago about the disadvantages of using sudo over su in everyday use of the computer, but no one seems to care. However, if anyone's interested, here it goes:

http://unixlust.com/articles/20070820113327.html

Last edited by unixlust (2007-10-10 21:13:29)

retsaw

Member

From: London, UK

Registered: 2005-03-22

Posts: 132

Re: Virus paranoia

If you choose to set up sudo to ask your password every time you used it instead of the 5 minute timeout it has by default before it'll ask you again, I don't see how sudo is less secure than su, except in the case that your user account was compromised by the hacker guessing your password.

In reality, the chance of my user account being compromised is very small, so I'll accept the risk of a less secure sudo configuration where I can run selected commands without a password for my convenience.

ekerazha

Member

Registered: 2007-02-27

Posts: 290

Re: Virus paranoia

chkrootkit ( http://www.chkrootkit.org/  ) checks for (the few) *nix viruses, worms and rootkits.

Last edited by ekerazha (2007-10-22 06:21:21)