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I have a triple boot, windows 7 , 8 and ubuntu. Is it possible that any spyware or virus in windows will also harm ubuntu or spy during ubuntu session ?
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I have a triple boot, windows 7 , 8 and ubuntu. Is it possible that any spyware or virus in windows will also harm ubuntu or spy during ubuntu session ?
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I have to agree with MDT Guy, it is highly improbable. I'll also assume that you use the term virus - as most people - for malware in general and not a particular malware category.
So again, highly improbable but not entirely impossible. You know best whether you share your browser profiles across those platforms.
One more thing. Many Linux (also MacOSX) users fall prey to the assumption that malware that doesn't have privileged access can't hurt you (which is also often cited as a reason why there "isn't" malware for unixoid systems, which also isn't entirely true). This couldn't be further from the truth. Although this prevents it from establishing a system-wide stronghold, it won't keep malware from skimming data from your personal files etc. A rogue browser extension installed in your own profile will still be as dangerous to your account as the one that can do it to all accounts. If you do your internet banking with the rogue extension installed, it makes no difference whether you are root
or joe
.
Partial disclosure: I work for an AV company, but won't tell which :) ... but keep in mind: Strictly speaking we can never tell whether a system is clean, whereas we can state that we didn't find anything. Every claim to the contrary is either Marketingese or is going to obsolete the AV industry as a whole quickly.
3Upvoted for "can never tell whether a system is clean" - our policy was "Nuke it from orbit, only way to be sure". – Mark Allen – 2013-02-27T02:28:26.680
Upvoted for the same reason, and for a detailed answer. – TFM – 2013-02-27T03:12:56.603
It would be helpful to reference some examples of cross-platform worms such as Koobface, as well as others like the Nimda worm that can infect not only computers, but also peripherals (in this case, printers). – rob – 2013-05-22T16:49:10.013
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No. This is HIGHLY improbable if not impossible. Code from one OS won't run on the other and vice versa.
Any reasoning or source you can add to your answer? As it stands now, it can be interpreted as you're guessing, or you were the one who wrote both Windows and Linux. See 0xC0000022L's answer, and you'll understand what I mean. – TFM – 2013-02-27T03:09:56.437
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It's not likely*. Executable files for Windows exist in a specific file format that other non-Microsoft OSes are unlikely to be able to run without emulation. (Such as WINE.)
The idea is that a virus would also be written in an OS-specific format since a computer virus is merely some executable code that does something bad/without permission, and only run on an OS that can execute that format.
There's a chart, here which compares the features of several formats. You can mouse over them and/or click through them to see which OSes run them.
*Which means someone's probably done it, it just didn't catch on/wasn't practical/we just don't know about it/I just don't know about it, etc.
Back when I worked in technical support the policy for infected customers was to recommend flattening the machine and reinstalling from scratch. With two major OS types installed you're probably ok, but I'm not qualified to speak to "Oh maybe your boot sector is infected and will just reinfect the next instance Windows you install" - I really don't know anymore.
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I think, one virus can infect two or more OSes. Right now, my computer has a virus which located in some special area o the driver (like hard driver, or USB driver), it infects both Windows and Ubuntu. As a result, a startup disk made by Startup creator in ubuntu can't boot up a computer.
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Windows and Linux are two different platforms.Virus,malware,rootkit cannot crisscrossed into different platforms as it is written specifically for that platform.Ubuntu latest edition is written with a spyware to track the user by Ubuntu developer.
There are numerous ways for a Linux installation to infect a Windows installation with a Windows virus. – Ramhound – 2013-02-27T15:11:34.567
The old answers here are not really aging well. There are increasingly sophisticated multi-prong attacks which are designed to infect an organization and apply different tactics and execute different payloads depending on the next target they want to take over. – tripleee – 2018-04-18T07:43:40.673