# Linux and Security



## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

This PDF shows why Linux users can no longer claim immunity to malware:
A Must Read


----------



## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

And it's but one of many. Most end-users are still under the delusion that Linux is impenetrable and not a target, neither of which is true.

Just a day or two ago, on another forum, someone was making the claim that Linux was a "fringe operating system." My response: "It's certainly a small minority of home or small business end users who have it, but it's a mainstay of data centers all over the world. It isn't fringe, in any meaningful sense of the word, by a long shot, and hasn't been for a while now."

The widespread use of Linux in data centers has made it a juicy target for nefarious players for quite some time now, and it will only get worse, not better.


----------



## Gary R (Jul 23, 2008)

For the average *Home Desktop User *Linux is not targeted anywhere near as much as Windows is, and for good reason ...


Linux only has about 3% of the Desktop market.
That 3% is divided into dozens of different distros, further reducing its desirability as a target.
Most Linux software is usually downloaded from a repository, which significantly reduces the opportunity for someone to download and install something dodgy.
Because it is Open Source its source code is available for anyone to look at, so security flaws do generally tend to get spotted and patched quickly.
When you update Linux, you update your whole system, not just the Operating System.
So if you're a home user, don't go thinking you've suddenly become any more vulnerable to a malware attack.

That does not mean Linux is not a target, or that it can't be compromised. As has already been said, Linux is a mainstay of the server community, and most phone systems are based on Linux technology.

Hacking Linux is no more difficult than hacking Windows, in fact in many ways it's probably easier, since Linux developers have not got the experience that Microsoft have had to acquire in defending their product.


----------



## britechguy (Dec 6, 2019)

Gary R said:


> When you update Linux, you update your whole system, not just the Operating System.


No snark intended, but what on earth does that mean? Updating Linux updates Linux, just like updating Windows updates Windows. It doesn't go through your application software and/or data files and/or scripts and update those.


----------



## Gary R (Jul 23, 2008)

When you update Windows, only the OS gets updated, that is because your software comes from 3rd party producers.


With Linux your software comes from the Repository of the particular distro you have installed, so when you update Linux, then the updater also checks the software that you have installed against the latest copy in the repository, and if any of that has been updated, then the Linux updater updates the copy on your machine.


----------



## monkeyluv (Jun 1, 2016)

All operating systems are generally vulnerable, especially when new features are introduced for various software. More popular systems are hit because malware authors have greater incentive to target them, and it's usually then that vulnerabilities are revealed. That explains this news from last March:









Windows 10 isn’t the most vulnerable operating system – it’s actually Linux


Surprising reports paints Linux and Android as less secure than Windows




www.techradar.com





But the author adds that comparisons might be questionable as Debian was used much longer, and there's more to security than vulnerabilities. The conclusion, then, is the ff.: "The point still stands, however, that no users should be complacent, no matter how secure they believe any particular product might be."


----------

