Antivirus

[gruso]

^ Ha.

There's no way I'll be allowed to put Pandora on my company network, so I'll just be using 3G at work. I already am actually - once I bought my Huawei modem and tested it on my work PC, I couldn't leave home without it. Now I can access all the sites their filter blocks. Including this one. Haha, IT guys. Haha.

 

[emcp]

bit of topic

but my school is getting wirless internet, next year, now they run windows xp, and re on the c2kni network,

any chance off getting to use it, i highly doubt it

next year ill have enough access to access my files remotely from the c2kni network, via their website, if that changes anything

 

[Squidge]

Heh, never seen such stupidity of a company ever... and after all, the viruses most linux virus scanners do find are Windows viruses - as Linux PCs in companies are most often used as servers and with that they do protect the Windows clients...
I remember trying to get them to install a Linux server, but theres no chance. You had to fill in a SRF (Server request form) which basically asked you questions such as processing requirements, storage requirements, etc. You can't request a specific CPU and memory amount, they decide that for you. The OS was always Windows Server 2003 (No exceptions), and if you needed a database you always got MS SQL Server, despite people (including myself) stating that MySQL was perfectly adequate ("MySQL is not on the approved list" was always the response).

 

[PoisonedV]

you say 'yes it has an antivirus' and feel fine knowing that everyone else isn't knowledge enough of viruses, linux, or the pandora to challenge you on it or check it. but i understand security check asnd crap, my university has similar policies...

 

[Archaemic]

Heh, never seen such stupidity of a company ever... and after all, the viruses most linux virus scanners do find are Windows viruses - as Linux PCs in companies are most often used as servers and with that they do protect the Windows clients...

The possibility that someone writes an ARM virus that will work on the Pandora does exist... but it's about as big as a big airplane will crash into the server room of your company... and does your company have an SDI installed?

There actually are one or two viruses for the PSP, but they used the TIFF exploit that was patched in 2.81. Because of this, "legitimate" versions of the exploit were also marked as viruses by some virus scanners.

But the point is that there are malicious people out there. I just sincerely doubt that any of them would write a virus for a system they don't have access to, and I doubt anyone would buy a Pandora just to write a virus (although I guess someone could just download the SDK and write something stupid, but without a root escalation exploit, they can't do all that much damage, and with the SD booting, they can't do anything permanent). I guess the payload could be an x86 Windows virus, but this really is more unlikely than the earth being hit my an asteroid within the next month.

 

[Kramy]

Viruses could tag along on the SD card. They'd show up as hidden files that don't do anything, but when plugged into a poorly secured windows box, BOOM! - autorun! :lol:

 

[danielliu88888]

Heh, never seen such stupidity of a company ever... and after all, the viruses most linux virus scanners do find are Windows viruses - as Linux PCs in companies are most often used as servers and with that they do protect the Windows clients...

The possibility that someone writes an ARM virus that will work on the Pandora does exist... but it's about as big as a big airplane will crash into the server room of your company... and does your company have an SDI installed?

There actually are one or two viruses for the PSP, but they used the TIFF exploit that was patched in 2.81. Because of this, "legitimate" versions of the exploit were also marked as viruses by some virus scanners.

But the point is that there are malicious people out there. I just sincerely doubt that any of them would write a virus for a system they don't have access to, and I doubt anyone would buy a Pandora just to write a virus (although I guess someone could just download the SDK and write something stupid, but without a root escalation exploit, they can't do all that much damage, and with the SD booting, they can't do anything permanent). I guess the payload could be an x86 Windows virus, but this really is more unlikely than the earth being hit my an asteroid within the next month.


what kind of no life does this stuff? unless they're paid or from west africa.

 

[lulzfish]

I have an SD card that autoruns xeyes when I plug it into a GNOME [or maybe KDE, I dunno] system.

 

[truekaiser]

just install clamav, then show it to them.

 

[cb88]

clamav

xfprot

also.. most of the big antivirus softwares ie avast AVG and kapersky all run on Linux (x86 mind you)

 

[gp32rich]

Wow, that's incredibly stupid. Surprises me that a big corporation can be that technologically ignorant.
Not ignorant, just run by lawyers and accuntants that define everything down to the last bean including time lost due to unsigned systems being attached.

Ignorant? No. (Not quite enough )
Paranoid? Yes.
Bureaucratic? Yes.

 

[fiveseven]

Hypothetically speaking, if someone *were* to write a virus for Pandora, how much damage could it actually do? I guess it could screw with the firmware, meaning that you'd need a re-flash, but I'm guessing it couldn't do any permanent damage?

 

[Mithrildor]

And a second if, the Pandora gets a virus, what can it do with your work's server? Servers use the x86 architecture , not an ARM one.

 

[dflemstr]

Pandora runs a linux platfor, meaning that IF a virus was written for the pandora, it would only have access to your personal file and folders ("only", lol) so the flash etc wouldn't be touchable. The system will survive, but the virus COULD take your Firefox passwords.
Highly improbable, tho, because:
1. The virus needs to know where you store your sensitive stuff when it's programmed.
2. There's no autorun in Linux. You'd have to doubleclick on the executable file (and because Linux uses libmagic + MIME-types for it's files, you will see the file as an executable when it is an executable.)
3. Someone has to bother to write it . Which noone will, probably.

 

[WizardStan]

And a second if, the Pandora gets a virus, what can it do with your work's server? Servers use the x86 architecture , not an ARM one.
It could still access files on the network and send information it finds home. We have a lot of "secret" spec sheets that we could get sued over if someone that hasn't paid for them gets ahold of it, plus email, credit card, client data, and other data leaks could happen. Better to be safe than sorry.
A virus on the Pandora could do exactly the same thing as it could on any other computer: stir up trouble, delete personal files, crash your computer, make a big mess; OR it could sit there quietly, patiently gobbling up passwords, emails, and credit cards and sending that information back to its creator.
QUOTE
There's no autorun in Linux. You'd have to doubleclick on the executable file
You may not be old enough, but back in The Day™ a virus wasn't a program by itself. It couldn't spread by email, or find holes in the network*. There was no autorun at all. In order to spread infection, a virus had to convince you that you wanted it to be run. And the best way to do that was to attach itself to something that you did want to run. Person A would somehow get a virus. Doesn't matter how, it's just there. That virus would sit in memory listening for the interrupt which signaled a program was executing. It would glom onto that filename, and literally inject it's own code into the executable, so that the next time that program was run, the virus would be active again. Person A would then say "hey, this game is fun!", copy it to disk, and then give that disk to their friend, Person B. Now B has that virus, and that virus gloms itself onto any other files B might execute as well, and then share. Very little of such sharing goes on these days, so it doesn't make sense for a virus to spread like that, but it could still happen.

*yeah, there were some that did this. In fact, if memory serves, the first "virus" (created by accident) used a network exploit to spread. But I'm not talking about those, I'm talking about the old school DOS viruses.

 

[PoisonedV]

Thats not really a 'virus' is it though? It's just malicious code

 

[elwing]

The possibility that someone writes an ARM virus that will work on the Pandora does exist... but it's about as big as a big airplane will crash into the server room of your company... and does your company have an SDI installed?

sorry, but there are virus that can target the pandora:

CODE
http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/000613.html

 

[sdedalus83]

You're really lucky that they'd even consider letting you connect it to the network and that the only hurdle is company AV policy.

Most companies don't want anything not controlled by the company on the network. Part of it's for security, but it's mostly for productivity. If people are allowed to bring in their own personal computers, mobile devices, game systems, they're far more likely to waste time at work doing things not involved with the job.

 

[BackAssward]

You're really lucky that they'd even consider letting you connect it to the network and that the only hurdle is company AV policy.

Most companies don't want anything not controlled by the company on the network. Part of it's for security, but it's mostly for productivity. If people are allowed to bring in their own personal computers, mobile devices, game systems, they're far more likely to waste time at work doing things not involved with the job.

I have to replace you`re *most companies* with *some companies*, since most companies have two (three) things:

1. Contractors. They do not supply contractors with computers (usually), and so contractors use their own.
2. VPN. Many companies use VPN, and allow people to use their own machines to VPN in (they don`t give laptops to everyone, so personal machines are the only solution). Personal computers are out of their control and connect often via VPN.
3. Vendors. Many companies have vendors on site and/or helping them remotely. A vendor`s computer will almost never be a company machine, but will often need direct or remote access to the network. Often requiring access to the most sensitive areas with full privileges.

I do speak of larger companies, not little ones where the above doesn`t happen so much... but then, this is more a concern for larger companies.


Edit: I originally said:
(I`m afraid that sdedalus` knowledge of "most companies" isn`t that worldly.) and maybe that wasn`t fair (a local arse called me on it).

So I am changing it to:
(I think sdedalus` experience in the corporate world is not universal, nor representative of most large corporations).

p.s., it`s too bad the interaction was deleted, I thought it was pretty funny:
CODE
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/3978/uselesstool.jpg

 

[Bosbeetle]

well it really depends on the compagny in my case its a hospital and they wont let me near the network with a own computer (and I dont work with patient data at all) but i think its fair. A real downside to this is that there is no wifi at work

maybe I have to do work instead