Do you have any antivirus recomendations for Linux.
Yes. Don’t.
I wouldn’t recommend using anti-virus software. It usually creates a lot more overhead, plus it usually mimics existing solutions already in linux. The only viruses I have ever caught using an anti-virus software on Linux are the test viruses to see if all is working fine.
Anyway, here’s my 20+ enterprise experience recommendations with Linux :
- enable secure boot: will disable launching non-signed kernel modules (prevent root kits)
- enable firewall: and only allow ports you really need.
- SELinux: it is getting better, and it will prevent processes to access resources out of their scope. It can be problematic if you don’t know it (and it is complex to understand). But if it doesn’t hinder you, don’t touch it. I do not know AppArmor, but it is supposed to be similar.
- disable root over ssh: or only allow ssh keys, or disable ssh altogether if you do not need it.
- avoid using root: make sure you have a personal account set up with sudo rights to root WITH password.
- only use trusted software: package managers like
aptandrpmtend to have built in functionality to check the state and status of your installed software. Use trusted software repositories only. Often recommended by the distro maintainers. Stay away from use this script scripts unless you can read them and determine if they’re the real thing.
Adhering to these principles will get you a long way!
edit: added section about software sources courtesy of @dragnucs@lemmy.ml
And when in doubt, upload the file to virustotal.
Thank you for the advice!
Firewall on Linux is something I still don’t understand, and explanations found on Internet have always confused me. Do you happen to know some good tutorial to share? Or maybe one doesn’t need to do anything at all in distros like Ubuntu?
Regarding ssh: you only mean incoming ssh, right?
@bushvin@pathfinder.social @toikpi@feddit.uk @hevov@discuss.tchncs.de @ChonkaLoo@lemmy.world @HotBoxghost2743@lemmy.ml @c1177johuk@lemmy.world (I’m surely forgetting someone, sorry)
Thank you ALL for the great advice and guides! I’m writing from behind a laptop firewall now, and don’t notice anything :) It was smoother than I expected. In the end I used UFW because it was already installed, but I’ll take a look at firewalld too in some days! I don’t have any incoming ssh connections (not a server), so I didn’t need to worry about that :)
Really great people here at Lemmy :)
You’re welcome friend!
Yes, usually you configure your endpoint firewall to block incoming traffic, while allowing all outgoing.
Unless you’re in a very secure zone, like DMZ’s.
Firewall - While this tutorial is Ubuntu 16.04 it should work current versions of Ubuntu https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/getting-started-gufw-ubuntu-16-04 It should work for other distributions once you change the package manager.
What don’t you completely understand about Linux firewall? I don’t mind helping you learn
Thank you everyone, also @bushvin@pathfinder.social @toikpi@feddit.uk.
For example, if I open my settings (I’m on Ubuntu+KDE) I don’t see any firewall settings to configure. So I expect this is automatically done by the OS, but maybe I’m wrong. A bit surprised that the system itself doesn’t recommend using a firewall, to be honest.
Many firewall tutorials start speaking about “your server”. Then I wonder: is this really for me? I don’t have a server. Or do I?
I now see that the tutorial from @toikpi@feddit.uk gives a better explanation, cheers! So I see it’s good to have a firewall simply because one connects to public wifis from time to time.
I see that both UFW and firewalld are recommended… is it basically OK whichever I choose?
The main one everybody uses at least from my knowledge and from what I’ve used over the last 13 years is UFW. That is what you want to use.
A firewall is very important not just for being on public Wi-Fi connections. A firewall is your extra layer of protection
I don’t know what Distro you run. But it’s almost the same for each one
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-firewall-with-ufw-on-ubuntu-20-04
UFW is installed by default on Ubuntu. If it has been uninstalled for some reason, you can install it with sudo apt install ufw.
Using IPv6
sudo nano /etc/default/ufw
That command should come back with this
IPV6=yes
Save and close the file. Now, when UFW is enabled, it will be configured to write both IPv4 and IPv6 firewall rules. However, before enabling UFW, we will want to ensure that your firewall is configured to allow you to connect via SSH. Let’s start with setting the default policies.
Setting up default policies
sudo ufw default deny incoming sudo ufw default allow outgoing
These commands set the defaults to deny incoming and allow outgoing connections. These firewall defaults alone might suffice for a personal computer, but servers typically need to respond to incoming requests from outside users. We’ll look into that next.
To configure your server to allow incoming SSH connections, you can use this command:
sudo ufw allow sshThis will create firewall rules that will allow all connections on port 22, which is the port that the SSH daemon listens on by default. UFW knows what port allow ssh means because it’s listed as a service in the /etc/services file.
However, we can actually write the equivalent rule by specifying the port instead of the service name. For example, this command works the same as the one above:
sudo ufw allow 22If you configured your SSH daemon to use a different port, you will have to specify the appropriate port. For example, if your SSH server is listening on port 2222, you can use this command to allow connections on that port:
sudo ufw allow 2222To enable UFW, use this command:
sudo ufw enableThe main one everybody uses at least from my knowledge and from what I’ve used over the last 13 years is UFW. That is what you want to use.
I could easily say that for firewalld… 😃
Ufw is typically available/pre-installed with Debian based systems (Debian, Ubuntu, zzz), while Firewalld is typically available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivates (Fedora, CentOS, Rocky, …)
But it boils down to what you prefer, really.
I know all this already. But I also use arch and have been for the last 6+ years and I use ufw lol
I see that both UFW and firewalld are recommended… is it basically OK whichever I choose?
Yes. Whichever works for you should be fine. In the end you should be able to manage it
go with firewalld ufw floods dmesg with useless messages
I don’t think you need to configure your firewall. Firewalls are usualy used to block incomming connectings. Usualy a Firewall that blocks all incomming connections is already active on your modem/router. Adding exception to the modem/router Firewall usualy happen through port forwords.
ebtablesandiptablescan be very complex. And I failed my 1st RHCE exam because of them. But once you learn, you will never unlearn, as they are quite beautifully crafted. You just need to get into the mindset of the people who wrote the tools…Look into
firewalldIt has a rather simplified cli interface:firewall-cmdThe manpages will tell you a lot.
firewall-cmd —add-service=sshWill open the ports for your ssh daemon until you reload your firewall or reboot your systemfirewall-cmd —permanent —add-service=sshWill open the ssh ports until you remove themfirewall-cmd —list-allWill show you the current firewall configTry nftables directly, it’s simple and straightforward, scripting syntax is easy.
Another simpler frontend for iptables I think is well suited for desktop environemnts is ufw. It does what it’s supposed to do and is extremely simple to use
I personally do not know ufw, but if it does what it must, then you’re solid.
Linux is also about choices: do stuff the way you choose to, and makes you comfortable.
Do you have any antivirus recomendations for Linux.
Install all applications from your package manager.
Don’t run things as root.
Don’t visit sketchy websites.
Run an ad-blocker that isn’t owned by an advertising company.
Can you get a virus just for visiting a sketchy website?
Also, some programs aren’t available via my package manager (I use Fedora) so I have to add 3rd party repos. Is there a general security guide for linux?
Thank you!
Can you get a virus just for visiting a sketchy website?
Not with an uptodate browser. But there was malware in adverts on normal webpages. Even CIA recommends an adblocker.
Meanwhile at Google…
Nowadays it is almost impossible to get a virus just from visiting websites. As for security recommendations I would recommend never running applications as roo that 100% don’t need it, as for 3rd party repos I would always be a by mindful of the apps but generally there isn’t too much of a risk, of getting a virus.
There have been cases of malware exploiting scripts and even images being displayed, whether directly hosted on the site or via compromised ads.
Highly unlikely. A site could try to exploit unpatched security holes in your browser, but if your browser is up to date, this is unlikely to succeed. Modern browsers are very complex and large so they have lots of weaknesses, but they also get fixed quickly, a lot of eyes are on their code and they utilize sandboxing techniques as well to isolate things from your system.
Still, it’s a good idea to harden your browser further yourself, or run it in an additional sandbox.Check Flatpaks as well.
There are anti viruses that run on GNU/Linux like ClamAv and kaspersky but they actually do not target the machine they run on or at least they are not so useful. Their intention is to stop the spread of malware.
In general, you just need to install softwaref uaong the package manager from trusted sources that are usually the defaults of your distribution and not input your password when you are not expecting it.
When copying commands to the terminal, most terminals will warn you if you are copying a command that requires root privileges.
That said for the operating system, apply it to the browser as well by being eclectic on what extensions you install and voila. 99.99% guaranteed malware free.
A very good point I forgot! Only use trusted software repositories!
You don’t need one if you know what you are doing but there’s ClamAV
Yeah, I think most of the times, if you don’t run very sensitive enterprise grade machine there isn’t much point to it.
Maybe run it once in a while if you really want to.
Trusting end-users to know what they’re doing… Impossible mission
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Wow really helpful
Thanks for the helpful list. I had concerns in the past about flatpak, because as far as I know the dependencies are bundled into the flatpak and are not using the latest version of your distro. But that means that some flatpaks probably use outdated and unsecure dependencies.
Whats your opinion on that matter?
I found flatpak to in fact be ahead of distros’ packages. Granted, I use distros that are rather conservative on update (Debian, Gentoo, and Linux Mint). If you use something bleeding edge like Arch, things may be different, but shouldn’t be far off.
Either way, I find flatpak to be reliable.
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do not use browsers from flatpak. browsers have their own built in sandbox that is crippled or sometimes fully disabled in order to make flatpaks sandboxing work, which are often less restrictive than the browser’s.
flatpak is better than nothing for the average user but most packages completely ignore the sandboxing it is supposed to use and require manual changes on flatseal.
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I would actually like to see your Bubblewrap script if you wouldn’t mind sharing. I’ve been thinking about trying to learn how to use it for a while now, but I’ve kept putting it off since getting Xorg programs to work with it seemed difficult/confusing to me.
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I don’t understand why we keep telling new users that it is useless to use an antivirus on Linux. For people with computer knowledge, sure. However more widespread Linux adoption will mean more casual users will start using it. Most of them don’t have the “common sense” that is often mentioned ; these users will eventually fall for scams that tell them to run programs attached in emails or random bash scripts from the internet. The possibility is small, but it’s not zero, so why not protect against it?
Because snake oil is not helping, or a working substitute.
Security is a process, not a solution.
Processes alone don’t warn you when your browser gets exploited or when npm install/pip install/cargo install triggers a cryptolocker/credential stealer/cryptowallet stealer. And yes, you could containerise everything and separate everything in virtual machines and run QubesOS and whatever, but most people don’t do that because that’s a terrible pain in the ass.
Security is a process, and smart use of antivirus software is just one step of that process.
The problem with AV s/w in my experience, is that they do not work very well, and hinder the system’s functioning, because they provide duplicate behaviour of existing solutions and compete with them directly.
In one instance I discovered McAfee to disable write access to /etc/{passwd,shadow,group} effectively disabling a user to change their password. While SELinux will properly handle that by limiting processes, instead of creating a process that would make sure those files aren’t modified by anyone.
People need to understand Linux comes pre-equipped with all the necessary tools and bolts to protect their systems. They just don’t all live in the same GUI, because of the real complexity involved with malware…
In one instance I discovered McAfee to disable write access to /etc/{passwd,shadow,group} effectively disabling a user to change their password. While SELinux will properly handle that by limiting processes, instead of creating a process that would make sure those files aren’t modified by anyone.
That sounds like McAfee alright. Most antivirus software doesn’t do stupid shit like that, though. Linux has plenty of APIs and call filters to detect and prevent attacks on passwd. In its default configuration, ClamAV and various other antivirus tools don’t even do anything but update their definitions until you explicitly call them to scan a file.
People need to understand Linux comes pre-equipped with all the necessary tools and bolts to protect their systems. They just don’t all live in the same GUI, because of the real complexity involved with malware…
That’s the thing, every operating system has that. Microsoft has everything from signed drivers to exploit guard and even Microsoft Edge running entirely inside a virtual machine to combat any form of browser exploitation. Even everything from Microsoft’s EMET has been included in Windows. ACG/EAF/IAF/various ROP detection mechanisms/DEP/SEHOP/StackPivot/CIG/integrity validation, you can all enable it to prevent most exploitations in almost any program on Windows. Linux doesn’t come close!
I can count on one hand the amount of people who actually bothered to run
npm installin a container, let alone something more secure than that. I’ve never seen anyone validate the checksum of any downloaded executables or packages, let alone upload them to virustotal or any other virus scanner.The current security mindset of Linux users seems to be the same as that of macOS users ten years ago; “there are so few viruses for our platform that we don’t need to be careful”. Apple prevented that from becoming catastrophic by making macOS a Big Brother operating system where it’s practically impossible to install a driver, where every single executable is checked with Apple’s servers. Still, macOS malware is a real thing, and so is Linux malware.
With Steam Deck bringing Linux to the mainstream (as well as provide guaranteed access to a device with games and transferable collectables connected to a valid account) I expect Linux malware to start becoming more than developer/server oriented. Linux has some nice tricks (unlike Windows, it doesn’t set the execute bit and add an optional flag on new files by default) but it’s vulnerable to others. curl2bash is the norm for various professional programs. Discord tells you to open .deb files from their website, normalising the “persist this file on your system, trust me”. In fact, the standard EmuDeck installation method is “download this .desktop file to your desktop and double click it”, like you would with any Windows program.
I don’t run an antivirus program because I consider myself smart enough not to get infected (dangerous, I know). That doesn’t mean new users shouldn’t be running antivirus, though. Just because you don’t need antivirus, doesn’t mean that someone with no experience with SELinux, AppArmor, containerisation or execute bits shouldn’t. You just have to avoid the shittier companies (the free ones, the paranoid enterprise ones).
Security is a process, not a solution.
Well put!
You might be legitimately annoyed by the amount of free antivirus software on Windows that don’t offer good protection, on top of being filled with ads. But I don’t agree that scanning for malicious files and preventing dangerous commands (regardless of how good the implementation is) can be labelled as snake oil.
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As Linux gets more popular, malware will target Linux, it’s just a matter of time. So right now it’s not a big problem, but hopefully Linux gets popular enough that it happens.
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You could say the same about macOS, but now that gets targeted, and Linux has about the same amount of reported userbase as macOS now. So if Linux continues to gain traction, I expect it to follow macOS in becoming a target for malware. Maybe it’ll take longer because of the fragmentation, but I think we’ll get there.
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Same thing happened on macOS. We used to say it’s immune because everything was written only for Windows. That stopped being true a long time ago and the majority of web servers have been running Linux for a decade. Doesn’t seem so crazy to me that someone would want to regularly scan their Linux boxes for bad code.
You should protect against it, but antiviruses are not the answer. It’s more efficient to prevent breaches by building good security into software by design (and keeping your system up to date) than to play an endless game of catch-up enumerating pieces of malware after they’re already circulating.
Windows tried this approach and it turned into a mess, antivirus companies turned into villains themselves and it still didn’t fix the underlying problems. Eventually they came around to actually fixing security problems, and keeping Windows up to date, and offering a curated source of apps and so on.
You can still use scanning on Linux, but apply it efficiently on entry points, like attachments in your email client or your Downloads dir. Don’t run a scanner all the time on all your processes and files, that’s a gross waste of resources.
It also makes no sense for a properly secured modern system. Take for example Android, where a userspace antivirus can’t work because userspace processes are isolated from each other, and a system level antivirus cannot be trusted because it needs to download signatures externally and can (and probably will) be a breach of privacy.
I basically agree with all the points you are making. Only scan downloads, email attachments and whatnot. Don’t try to play cat and mouse with sophisticated malware because that’s a waste of resources. I don’t think software like this exists?
Perhaps SELinux on desktop is the way to go as other posts are suggesting, although I heard that it has some usability problems and can break some programs.
Schrödinger’s Linux fanbase
Linux is so much better and easy to use for casual users. But in order to use it, you have to understand terminal, bash scripting, understand permissions, understand the difference between various flavors, etc
Most antivirus software are just root level tools to harvest your data, that pretend to help
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Do not run a root account for regular stuff. This is a lot less common now since most distros require you to create a non-root account during install and a lot of the systems annoy you if you’re running as root, but you’d be surprised by the sheer number of people who use accounts with UID 0 daily. This may also be caused by “”“more experienced”“” friends/family setting it up that way to try cutting corners regarding access rights, but the bottom line is: don’t be that person. Use root when necessary only.
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Get into the habit of not blindly running every command you see online or trying every trick you read/hear, at least not on your main system. Try to setup a VM (or multiple) for the purpose of trying stuff out or running something you’re not sure what the impact might be.
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Keep your system updated, from kernel to userland.
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Get into the habit of reading news regarding exploits, malware and the responses for them. You don’t need to become an infosec professional or even understand what they actually do. What is important is for you to learn what to avoid and when something really bad is discovered so you can update as soon as possible.
These 4 steps are arguably more important and create better results than any anti-virus could ever hope to do for you. They won’t ever get to 100% security, but then again, nothing will.
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I think clamav is a good antivirus
ClamAV works and even has live scan these days, with a performance impact similar to that on Windows and MacOS. It’s not as advanced as many Windows antivirus programs, but it does the job.
There are also enterprise antivirus products, but I don’t think they’ll work well on Linux. I would avoid free, proprietary antivirus products (like Avast) like the plague because all of them have had some kind of data collection/data selling controversy or have one coming up for sure.
I used to consider ESET to be quite good, but they dropped their Linux product it seems.
If you want to scan suspicious files, try virustotal.com. That’ll run the file through a wide range of antivirus products, including products you wouldn’t normally have access to as a consumer.
I have clamav installed, can I disable livescan? I use it mainly for data I will transfer to windows computers to make sure it’s safe
If you use a ClamAV GUI, you’ll probably have a toggle for this.
If you use the command line version, you can find the documentation for on-access scanning here. Basically: open
/etc/clamav/clamav.conf, setScanOnAccessandOnAccessPreventiontoyesand make sureOnAccessExcludeUnameis set toclamdor whatever clam system user your system uses.
I’m using since corporate Eset on Linux. When did they drop support?
They dropped Linux support for their home offering in 2022. Corporate probably still works (or you would’ve received an email about it) but they’re not exactly targeting individual consumers with their corporate suite.
ESET Endpont Antivirus for Linux
I haven’t used on-access scanning for years but I remember Dazuko was used by multiple AV devs to provide it.
That ESET page is their business offering, quite expensive for antivirus in my opinion.
This was their home Linux product, which they discontinued.
ClamAV is really only used to check for cross virus contamination. It’s a tool that checks for windows malware inside of Linux.
Linux doesn’t need any malware software. The way Linux runs and works is already way more secure in itself, almost everything you’ll ever download is pre compiled intro software repositories that are checked constantly.
The only way you’ll catch a virus on Linux is being dumb and clicking ads or downloading something from untrusted sources like websites that could be fake but look real.
At first: In most cases you don’t need and don’t want one.
I wanted to get one as I have several old (over two decades and more) Windows game CDs that I’ve bought long before switching to Linux. Back in the days it was actually a thing that sometimes malware slipped into professionally pressed CDs (especially on discs that came with PC game magazines or cheap game collection boxes).
For this case (Windows software check before attempting to run with wine) I can recommend ClamAV. It is open source and available on probably every distribution. But there is no need to attempt having it running all the time. I just run scans from the terminal whenever needed.
Unless you are in a cooperate environment or very careless with the stuff you download and commands you run you shouldn’t need one!
This is true, but the same could be said for Windows. Novices and beginners can probably do with a ClamAV install.
I generally agree but the comparison can’t be made that directly in my opinion because the small userbase of desktop Linux alone helps a lot there and the addition of repositories and Flathub do so too!
True, but commercial Linux viruses exist. Plenty of IT professionals have invested their fuck-you-money into crypto so there’s a market for desktop Linux viruses out there these days.
Flatpak helps a lot, but it’s got its own troubles and escapes if you want to actually use programs. The secure configuration locks file access to a few specific directories so loads of Flatpak applications will ask for much broader access so you can still edit pictures that are stored on other drives or outside the default Pictures folder.
There are way more viruses written for windows than there is for Linux
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Linux users find viruses and they report them and then everyone works on a fix for it and it gets patched as soon as possible. This is why open sourced code is good.
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Windows takes forever to fix or patch viruses most of the time they probably dont even care.
Everything virus related or even bug related gets patched almost immediately under Linux
Also… Everything you install on Linux is pre compiled and ore configured inside a package manager and these packages get checked constantly for bugs and viruses. Theres almost no need to install anything on Linux from websites that could be compromised
Out of the 13 years I have been using Linux I haven’t Once caught a virus but I also study malware and write malware so I also understand it more on a deep level.
But honestly it’s very hard to catch a virus on Linux
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The typical consumer Windows antivirus was designed to solve a different set of problems in a different environment and analysing files for signatures and behaviors against known threats was very valuable when so many people were running executables from unsafe sources intentionally or not. Even on Windows an antivirus has never been the best way to secure a machine. It was always the lowest common denominator solution that you put on everyone’s machine because it was better than nothing.
Linux has been well served for a long time by the division or privileges between root and users and signed trusted distro sources. The linux desktop is trending towards containerized flatpak applications running in seperate namespaces with additonal protection via seccomp. Try and understand the protections Linux provides and how to best take advantage of them first and only reach for an antivirus if you still think it is needed.
Common sense. ClamAV exists, but I have no idea if it’s worth it
