Re: [tlug] Anti-virus software is a scam

[Nicolas Limare <nicolas+tlug@example.com>]

> For instance, I say that you can never get a computer virus from certain 
> file times, and I explain why Linux is more secure than Windows.
> 
> Hopefully, I haven't said anything factually wrong in those regards.

In fact, this is wrong. For example, a bug was recently discovered in
libpng[1], with buffer overflow. This means that opening a specially
crafted PNG file via the buggy libpng could lead to execute evil code
on your machine. This evil code could be a virus or a virus
vector. In that case you "get a computer virus from a PNG file".

This is not common as .exe virii, but it's possible.

[1]http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-1205

I also remember the terrible times when OutlookExpress had a bug in
its HTML messages handling, and some messages could trigger the
execution of attachments when they were previewed. And you _had_ to
preview the messages if your wanted to delete them. With this
environment, you really needed an anti-virus.

-- 
Nicolas LIMARE
http://nicolas.limare.net/                         pgp:0xFA423F4F

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