Antivirus


someboddy

Still Fresh
Joined
Feb 29, 2008
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Is there any antivirus software that can be ported to the Pandora? Do we even need an antivirus?
 
Unless you're running a mail server from your Pandora, you probably don't need any antivirus software.
 
Try here.

General consensus: anti virus not necessary now on linux but the day may well come. If you linkto a Windows machine then it is probably advisable for the benefit of that machine.

ClamAV is likely to be possible and is possibly the widest used anti virus app on Linux
 
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I don't use Antivirus software on my Windows PC or Linux box, you shouldn't need it on Pandora either. Just don't run any software you don't trust. The major developers round here are fairly easy to work out :)

Antivirus software just conflicts with other software, slows your machine down, and hogs resources (and when a virus does break out, it usually either doesn't detect it, or only gets rid of parts of it).
 
Any countermeasure needs something to counter. Since by design linux is much less likely to have malicious software that spreads and there isn't any interest at the moment, there's no need to talk about it.
 
It's theoretically possible for someone to write a virus that attacks Pandora. But in practice it's unlikely. They'll focus on the most popular platforms -- I expect Pandora will be way down the list.

Even a virus that attacks Linux might not attack Pandora -- because it will have been written for the x86 Linux platform and won't be compatible with the ARM Linux that'll run on Pandora. Viruses for another ARM Linux platform (if such viruses ever exist)... might work on Pandora.

A lot of discussion goes on here about what it'll take to get a given piece of (game or emulator) software to run on Pandora. Well, a virus is software too. If nobody makes the effort to get it to run, it won't run. And for a virus to do its thing, it has to not only run, it has to run well, without help from the machine's owner.

It's theoretically possible to make a cross-platform virus. It's more difficult and therefore I expect it's less likely.

If you run an emulator of some popular system (dosbox) then it would be vulnerable to viruses, but they'd probably be trapped within the emulated system and not be able to do much harm there.

The only other reason you might want an antivirus on Pandora is to clean up files that are destined for some other machine (for example, suppose while you're browsing the web on Pandora you see a game you must have for your PC, and download it). But having antivirus on that other machine would solve that problem.

If there are opensource antivirus programs (I have to admit, I don't know whether there are) they could be ported. Would they? I doubt anyone would make the effort if there aren't viruses.
 
Has there ever been any malware for the GP2X or GP32? I can't think of any but I can think how easy it would be to do. I guess we are a pretty chilled out bunch who are basically nice to each other :)
 
Joppu said:
Viruses? On linux? This is madness!
this-is-sparta-caution-cone.jpg
 
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Why would the Pandora need an antivirus when there aren't any apps released, nor has the console itself been released?
 
Wasn't there a program purporting to be a major emulator a while back that some people said tried to brick their GP2x? I think about two people got caught, and then the community effect did the rest, and pushed the program into oblivion. I could be misremembering, though. It was some time ago if it did in fact happen.

I doubt there will be many for-Pandora viruses, though, and certainly not from the major devs. Definitely not enough to warrant antivirus protection, anyway. I think the most I'd be concerned about are web-based information harvesters, and generally speaking, those need a reasonablly lax security system to work.
 
TaG said:
Also the Pandora is supposed to be unbrickable...
exactly, if anything goes wrong, just reflash the system and restore your SD backups :)
 
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bboyneko said:
TaG said:
Also the Pandora is supposed to be unbrickable...
what if I stick it in my microwave?

As I understand it, that will kill all the viruses.
Craig will also happily sell you a new Pandora.
:D
 
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