Re: [gentoo-user] antivirus

[Jarry <jarry@gmx.net>]

Bob Young wrote:

> PowerUser is different from Admin, Admin is the equevelent of root in the
> Linux/Unix world, PowerUser is not. The primary and most important
> difference is the ability to *write* to the registry, It's perfectly safe to
> routinely log on as a PowerUser, as PowerUsers can *not* write to registry
> keys that affect the entire system, while Admin users can write to *any*
> registry key.

I'm not sure if this is true. Anyway, PowerUser has the ability
to install sw (even system patches!), alter executables and system
files! PowerUser can write to C:\ProgramFiles, or C:\Windows, and
that is exactly, what a virus need to spread itself. Not many viruses
can hide their code in registry (that is just equivalent to /etc in
unix-world), mostly they attach themselves to some exe/sys file,
or overwrite them...

So, if you start a virus-infected program as a PowerUser, there
are perfect conditions for spreading infection. If there were
some virus for linux, and you start it as a normal user, it can
not alter executables in /usr or /sbin, because user does not have
write access to them. Such a virus could infect only *your* files.

I'd say PowerUser is something between a restricted user, and admin.

Jarry
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