Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!texbell!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386 Subject: Re: Is DOS under Unix immune? Message-ID: Date: 3 Aug 90 16:07:03 GMT References: Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Distribution: comp Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 19 In article jes@mbio.med.upenn.edu (Joe Smith) writes: > We are considering adopting '386 Unix in the lab, but I'm curious > about something. Are the DOS under Unix implementations immune to the > usual PC viruses? If so, how (in a nutshell)? If not, is the Unix > filesystem safe at least? I suppose most readers already know the > answer(s), so just e-mail... Existing PC viruses do not know about the particular environment of DOS-under- UNIX. Boot infectors and many executable infectors will fail if you're using a common disk image that's protected from writing by UNIX file protection. Viruses that infect random application programs may still work. I do know that some places doing work on viruses use DOS-under-UNIX as a "clean lab" environment. It's certainly going to be a lot harder for a DOS virus to infect such a setup. I don't know of any existing viruses that could make the jump over to UNIX, but I'm sure I could devise one if I was so inclined. Summary: It's a highly resistant if not immune environment. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' +1 713 274 5180. 'U`