Skip to main content

Anti-virus on Linux Mint?

Every Windows user knows that anti-virus software is essential.  We know that because marketing people tell us, so it must be true.

Even if it's a blatant money-making falsehood, no-body really wants to take the risk that a Windows machine might be easy to compromise.  So all Windows users deploy some sort of anti-virus software on their machines.

For Linux, the game seems different.  One opinion is from the Easy Linux Tips Project ("ELTP").  ELTP is quite hardcore about a security approach, but the key takeaway from the opinion is section 1.1 (Antivirus software and rootkit removers).  Anti-virus software decreases security on Linux Mint because the elevated permissions requires to do its job are the target of a vector attack, i.e. compromise the anti-virus software, then compromise the whole computer.

A consequence of this is that the use of Mono or Wine - translation layers that enable Windows applications to run on Linux Mint - are thus also effective attack vectors, because they enable Linux Mint to run malware written for Windows (crudely) - section 5.

Zoiks.

So, as ELTP suggests, in the primary admin account:

  • sudo ufw enable
  • sudo passwd
This was completed in Mar2018.  Upon re-test in Apr2018, the firewall was still up, so this setting looks like it survives re-boots/shut-downs.

Why did Linux Mint see fit to disable the firewall by default?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scanning & OCRring to PDF: Simple Scan, gimagereader and gscan2pdf v NAPS2 for Windows

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to scanning paper documents to PDF and digitising the scanned text via optical character recognition. Environment & required functionality The scan-and-OCR function needs to run on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; A Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". In any modern office - whether at home or at work - some transactional documents and documents from public authorities still arrive by snail-mail. This requires the ability to scan all documents, optionally with the digitisation of scanned text (typically via optical character recognition). The hardware is an old HP OfficeJet Pro 276dw, connected to the LAN instead of directly to a workstation. Alternatives There are two strategies: To use the software pr
Post a Comment
Read more

An attempt at full-disk encryption: Vera Crypt

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to testing full-disk encryption using VeraCrypt . Environment & required functionality Full-disk encryption needs to run on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". The objective requirement is to protect user data from the physical theft of the physical machine, to provide an additional line of defence against data loss. This is probably more important for Windows than for Linux Mint.   Even so, in both cases, the operating system is likely to log activity which can reveal personal data and user (meta)data. Full-disk encryption does not mitigate against Microsoft’s sinister telemetry functionality, for which the main solutions seem to be: Either to use tools whose developers are constantly on the prowl, hunting for t
Post a Comment
Read more

The Big Bang: Microsoft Windows goes for good, positive adaptations required

On 27Mar2021, Linux Mint ate Microsoft Windows 10 on Legolas. Three months on, I conclude beyond any doubt that wiping out Windows was the best decision I ever made. The second best decision I ever made was to test Linux Mint in Virtual Box five years ago. The third best decision I ever made was to take ownership of the learning curve that migrating in Windows really entails. A quick reminder: what’s Microsoft Windows like nowadays? I still need to use Windows at work. I cannot easily describe how painful it now is to use Windows. So I’ll try to describe it difficultly. My work machine is a powerful beast, but it exhibits constant latency. For a keyboard-orientated power user, this means that some keystrokes go walkabouts when other services on the Windows machine go to nuclear war with each other, scrambling to feed their narcissistic self-importance for besieged system resources wholly at the user’s expense. Something on Windows tends to clear the keyboard buffer randomly, resulting
Post a Comment
Read more