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Wednesday 29 August 2012

Linux has always been favourite among hackers and computer geeks, But how Linux prevents Viruses. That’s what you were always thinking about, right ? That’s what we gonna see in this post. Here is the answer with explanation..


The registry thing


Windows use the system of registry for mapping complex aspects of functioning of the operating system and other system/application software. In really simple terms, it can be thought of as a map which decided what will do what and how. Many viruses target registry to do malicious things, because it can be done in few lines of code by editing registry values. This is not possible on Linux because its mapping system is not that naive. So it is inert to such viruses.


User and the root


Linux uses different privileges for different kind of users. There is a root (administrator in Windows), which has the power to perform system level changes. But normal user don’t have permission to do anything with system that can damage it. But Windows most of time is run as Administrator, which make it prone to simple viruses which would not work otherwise. Tight user permissions make Linux safe.

 

File system control


Linux has a special kind of file system. System files and user files are stored on totally different level. What this mean is that, even if a user run some bad program, it won’t affect other users or system. Only the user who run that program pay the price. But in windows, all the users on the system pay for the deeds of one stupid user.

 

File Permissions


Linux has different permissions for different files for different users. Any program can’t change files, or create new files if the user running that program don’t have permission to do that. So the viruses which replicate themselves in different folders don’t work on linux.

 

Win32 API


Most Windows program are written using the application programming interface called Win32 API which is provided by Microsoft. Most viruses also use this. Since Win32 API don’t work in Linux, so such viruses also don’t work.

 

The most important thing


The most important reason which make Linux inert towards viruses is its architecture. Linux and Windows are very different system from architectural point of view. Executables for Windows (.exe files) have different architecture which Linux don’t understand, so viruses written for Windows don’t work in Linux.


Now I think you have the answer .......

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