With the increase popularity of the linux desktop and the steamdeck, will new viruses and malwares be developed for linux systems? should we better use an antivirus?

  • Lemmyuser_Guest@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    This (Also is there a service that audits code’s maliciousness for me? I sometimes use some unfamous stuffs from github for gaming, customizing etc. As long as I don’t give them a root permission I should be ok?)

    • phx
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      1 year ago

      There are tools that do this but it’s mostly for known issues or vulnerabilities (i.e. bad practice in coding or done after the fact). Some stuff runs code on at sandbox looking for sketchy behavior, but hackers may work around that by having malware that only activates in CD l specific circumstances or times.

      There can also be “privilege escalation” exploits which can allow a rogue process to obtain root/admin, and even without the process would have full access to whatever the user does in terms of network/device/hardware/process access (or sudo, as applicable).

      Not being able to run as root doesn’t help all that much if the process is able to access sensitive saved data, files and/or the internet