I know that Linux is more secure than Windows and normally doesn’t need an antivirus, but know myself I’m gonna end up downloading something at some point from somewhere on the internet, and it would be good to be prepared. So, which antivirus would you recommend for Linux (Mint specifically) just to double up on security?

  • notarobot@lemmy.zip
    282·
    10 days ago

    That is an old myth. There are less viruses for Linux because there are less users. But if you do things like install priated games, you have the same risk as on windows

    • Krudler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      101·
      10 days ago

      Thank you. I lived through the “Macs can’t get viruses” bullshit. Try being a teacher in a school with 200 Macs and find out how real that claim is. Yeeeeesh lol… two weeks after fresh imaging and new semester starting 50% of the machines would be completely b0rked

      • TeddE@lemmy.world
        1·
        10 days ago

        Hard disagree - the point is a decade ago there wasn’t enough Linux market share for bad actors to target Linux. Proton is a compatibility layer, which while technically being a sandbox, it isn’t designed around security the way a browser sandbox is. It would not be hard for a virus embedded in a made-for-windows program to identify that it’s actually a proton sandbox, then deploy a Linux-specific payload (assuming the malware designer gave it some forethought for that situation). Heck - there’s plenty of viruses that do their work in scripting languages that don’t care what OS you’re running on.

    • TMP_NKcYUEoM7kXg4qYe@lemmy.world
      21·
      9 days ago

      Brodie Robertson made a video about malware which pretends to be a pdf but is actually just an executable with a .pdf file extension. So if you double click it, you get pwnd. I think some desktop environments ask you for confirmation before running such thing but I would not count on it.

      So we even have an example of Linux specific malware.

      • KaninchenSpeed@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        11·
        9 days ago

        It shouldn’t even be able to run it, because the x permission bit is missing. As far as I know binaries can’t include icons on linux, so it would look different too.

        • TMP_NKcYUEoM7kXg4qYe@lemmy.world
          1·
          8 days ago

          Nope, the permission bit is preserved if you share the pdf in an archive like zip. The “looks different” won’t help. There is always at least a single user who accidentally falls for a trap, which looks like an obvious trap to others.