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Virii and linux


Ixthusdan
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Just in case you really wanted to know the semantics of it:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_of_virus

 

In the English language, the standard plural of virus is viruses. This is the most frequently occurring form of the plural, both when referring to a biological virus and when referring to a computer virus.

 

The less frequent variations viri and virii are virtually unknown in edited prose, and no major dictionary recognizes them as alternative forms. Their occurrence can be variously attributed to hypercorrection formed by analogy to Latin plurals such as radii; idiosyncratic use as jargon among a group, such as computer hackers; the incorrect assumption that the word is of Greek origin, requiring an -i plural; and deliberate word play, such as on BBSs (see, e.g.: leet).

 

To complicate matters further, viri is already used in Latin as the plural of vir, meaning "man" (thus making viri mean "men")

 

I hope that clears it all up :P

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What's wrong with complicated? :lol:

 

I prefer to use language that can be attributable to its subject. "Viruses" is biological for me, where "virii" is technological. And, since language is as alive as those who speak it, I am not bothered by creative terminology at all. B) Many many words in the dictionary today were not there 100 years ago.

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Just for your interest: There are currently 948 viruses for Linux, most of them can't really harm your system though (unless you run your system as root permanently, without firewalls, open up all ports/services and do other nonsense).

http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruslistfind?...rus&words=linux.

For Windows, there are a whopping 71398 known viruses, for Mac 4650.

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Just for your interest: There are currently 948 viruses for Linux, most of them can't really harm your system though (unless you run your system as root permanently, without firewalls, open up all ports/services and do other nonsense).

http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruslistfind?...rus&words=linux.

For Windows, there are a whopping 71398 known viruses, for Mac 4650.

:lol2:

 

If you look at the search results, you'll find those numbers are more than a little misleading. Backdoor.Win32.Biomac.c doesn't actually affect the Mac, but the search result includes it. Try searching for OS X, you'll get three windows viruses and a single Mac one (which doesn't even self propogate).

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i have some information that might shead some light on the subject. a worm for mac, (the iChat worm), acts this way:

 

“latestpics.tgz”, it installs itself at

* /tmp/latestpics

* /tmp/latestpics.tgz

* /tmp/latestpics.tar.gz

* /tmp/hook

* /tmp/apphook

* /tmp/pic.gz

* /tmp/apphook.tar

* /tmp/pic

 

The worm deletes ~/Library/InputManagers and copies /tmp/apphook to the folder ~/Library/InputManagers/apphook/apphook.bundle/Contents/MacOS

so that it runs every time an application starts.

 

while this is mac, mac runs on bsd, which is a *nix, and therefore demonstrates how a worm would work. however, as typical fashion of opensource, the mac vulnerability was patched about a year ago.

 

now virus being a virus, not a worm or a trojan, while theorectically possible, would be a bit harder. basically, for a virus to work, it would have to be put in a package to effect the entire system. putting a virus in a doc or pic for linux, would be a waste of time, as all it would do is effect the users account.

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putting a virus in a doc or pic for linux, would be a waste of time, as all it would do is effect the users account.

I wouldn't say so. I don't know how is it for you, but the most valuable information for me is stored in the user's account.

I can restore system from cd's in less than 20 minutes, but the same can not be said about my documents and mp3.

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putting a virus in a doc or pic for linux, would be a waste of time, as all it would do is effect the users account.

I wouldn't say so. I don't know how is it for you, but the most valuable information for me is stored in the user's account.

I can restore system from cd's in less than 20 minutes, but the same can not be said about my documents and mp3.

 

 

i was refering to someone coding a virus into a doc or a pic. you'd have to download it, then execute it, just for it to work. then even if it did work, it would only effect your users account. the chances of this senario working is slim, which is why we may never see a virus for *nix. now a worm is different. we have seen a handfull of those. the patch is usually out before the worm.

 

as for me, i make back up of my data. on another partition, to my gmail account, and cd.

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