Linux infection proves Windows malware monopoly is over

[Thomas Milne]

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 10:36 AM, Robert P. J. Day
<rpjday-L09J2beyid0N/H6P543EQg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jun 2010, Michael Lauzon wrote:
>
>> Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events:
>>
>> "Every time I write about Windows security software, I get a
>> predictable flood of responses from Linux advocates who claim that
>> they don’t need any such protection. Today comes a shining example
>> of why they’re wrong.
>>
>> "If you downloaded and installed the open-source Unreal IRC server in
>> the last 8 months or so, you’ve been pwned. Here’s the official
>> announcement:
>>
>> 'Hi all,
>>
>> 'This is very embarrassing…
>>
>> 'We found out that the Unreal3.2.8.1.tar.gz file on our mirrors has
>> been replaced quite a while ago with a version with a backdoor
>> (trojan) in it.
>>
>> 'This backdoor allows a person to execute ANY command with the
>> privileges of the user running the ircd. The backdoor can be
>> executed regardless of any user restrictions (so even if you have
>> passworded server or hub that doesn’t allow any users in).'"
>>
>> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/linux-infection-proves-windows-malware-monopoly-is-over/2206
>
>  oh, for the love of mutt -- that's not an indictment of the security
> of OSS, it's an indictment of the badness of insecure servers.
>
> rday
>
> p.s.  it would be deliciously ironic if the server(s) that were hacked
> to allow the above were running windows.
>
>

Yeah, I get this kind of thing all the time at work. We use Ubuntu
Linux now, but we used to have a mix. All the people who resisted
moving to Linux are constantly complaining about every little thing,
trying to show that Linux is 'just as bad as Windows'.

Of course, every time you ask what they were doing when the 'crash'
happened, they were watching a flash-based movie and Firefox locked
up.

The fact will always remain: Windows can be owned when it's just
sitting there doing nothing. You have to make a specific and serious
effort and throw in some social engineering to own a Linux system.

-- 
TBM
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