[vox-tech] is Linux truely immune to virus?

[Bill Broadley]

Hai Yi wrote:
> Hi, I accidentally downloaded a program down to my Ubuntu and SCPed it
> to my Windows vista. I used McAfee to scan it and found it's a Trojan
> and it was quarantined.

Presumably this was a windows binary?

> My concern is that, since I downloaded it in my Linux box in the first
> place, even I removed it afterward, I am not sure that's enough.

Well windows binaries can't run under linux (unless yo run it under wine or 
something).  If it never ran, it can't infect anything.

> I
> heard that Linux is virus-free, but I don't know how that conclusion
> is drawn and under what conditions?

Well practically it's not tougher, but not impossible.  So if you download an 
untrusted binary and run it as root it might well spread itself to other 
binaries on your system.

> 
> Thanks,
> Hai
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