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Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux?

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On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 04:40:07AM -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> Ill ask another question here. Is having dual boot Windows 10 (or 7 or
> 8) and Linux a security risk? Will malicious Windows programs gain
> access to Linux files (files in the Linux partition?)? Does GPT help
> here? 

Think for yourself a bit: technically it is perfectly possible. The
Linux partition is accessible from windows and, given some sort of
library for "understanding" the file system (probably ext4), files
can be modified this way. Vice-versa, the windows partition will be
accessible from Linux.

So in both cases, and given enough access rights, software can modify
the respective "other side". Only perhaps full-disk encryption (and
using different keys on both sides, and being particularly suspicious
when you get asked for the "wrong" key) might help you here. Except...
there's the unencrypted boot partition (cf. "evil maid attack").

There is an history of such "mixed target" attacks: Stuxnet[1] comes
to mind, whose ultimate target was (quite probably) the Siemens S7
SCADA at the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz/Iran, but as a stepping
stone it first infected the Windows machines used as operator front
ends connected to the S7.

It takes some dedication to even understand what Stuxnet was doing
there, mind you.

That said, this kinds of attacks are so complex that (as in the
case of Stuxnet) it possibly takes the resources of a nation-state
(or, in this case, probably two) to set something up like that.
OTOH things are pretty fluid these days, so I wouldn't count on
that staying the same for a long time.

So to sum up -- you'll have to read up on many things to even
understand an answer to your question. My current answer would
be (to some high, but unspecified degree of probability) "No",
but that might change whithin the next couple o'years.

Cheers

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet
- -- tomás
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is there any Windows virus that affect linux? Long Wind <longwind2@yahoo.com> - 2017-12-12 01:00 +0100
  Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-12-12 03:50 +0100
    Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? Anil Duggirala <anilduggirala@fastmail.fm> - 2017-12-12 10:50 +0100
      Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-12-12 11:10 +0100
        Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? Anil Duggirala <anilduggirala@fastmail.fm> - 2017-12-12 11:20 +0100
          Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-12-12 11:30 +0100
        Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? "x9p" <debian@x9p.org> - 2017-12-13 01:30 +0100
          Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? tomas@tuxteam.de - 2017-12-13 09:20 +0100
            Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? "x9p" <debian@x9p.org> - 2017-12-13 12:40 +0100
            Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? Jeroen Mathon <jeroenmathonmac@gmail.com> - 2017-12-13 13:20 +0100
              Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2017-12-13 17:50 +0100
                Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-12-13 18:40 +0100
                Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? "x9p" <debian@x9p.org> - 2017-12-14 02:50 +0100
            Re: is there any Windows virus that affect linux? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2017-12-13 17:40 +0100

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