Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!polyslo!vlsi3b15!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: ficc!peter@uunet.uu.net Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Why not change OS? Message-ID: <0009.8910021145.AA27888@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 2 Oct 89 14:13:21 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion ListLines: 22 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu Rather than go through all this trouble to keep viruses out of Macs and IBM-PCs, why not abandon the unprotected operating systems wherever possible and switch to UNIX? If you need to run DOS or MacOS software, there are ways of running it under UNIX in both cases: A/UX supports Macintosh software, and the various 80386 versions of UNIX have two DOS emulators that run in the virtual 8086 emulation mode. With no direct access to the hardware possible, and with multiuser security preventing writes to files (at least in the 80386 case), the worst the virus could do would be to infect user-written programs. When they attempted to format the hard disk, or infect installed software, they would simply trap and abort the virtual DOS image. UNIX-based software is extremely unlikely to be infected, since a UNIX virus would have to infect source code to transfer out of a machine. To defuse arguments about the Internet Worm, let us note that this program was restricted to two brands of computer: VAXes and 68000-based Suns. And it infected a network that was deliberately designed to be insecure. No, UNIX is not immune to trojan horses and viruses, but by and large this sort of program is kept uninfectious and benign by the nature of the system. [Ed. I hope that you're wearing asbestos skivvies... :-) ]