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Running Windows Viruses Under Linux

Posted by timothy on from the under-is-the-right-preposition dept.

ResQuad writes "Everyone loves Windows viruses, right? Well, the crazy people over at NewsForge (owned by the same people that own Slashdot) decided to try running Windows viruses with Wine. So next time you receive an email virus, strike up Wine and see what you can do (or not)."

17 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. Wine is not an Emulator. by wot.narg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lets see just how non emulator wine is... If the virii own it, its an emulator, if not, its telling the truth.

    Bwhahahh...

    --
    Roses are red
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    In Soviet Russia
    Poems write you!
    1. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are correct.

      We have "bling bling" and "ain't" in dictionaries. Marijuana is legally classified as a "narcotic", when in pharmacology only opiates can be narcotics.

      The language changes. It may suck, but it's reality.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    2. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by m50d · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, just like lame ain't an mp3 encoder. Names aren't always the full story. Wine definitely is an emulator in that it emulates, it just does it on a different level than most emulators, so it doesn't have many of their drawbacks, like the slowness.

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      I am trolling
    3. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by dinivin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just because that's what the developer's claim, it doesn't make it so.

      If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's gonna be a duck.

      Wine, acronym or not, is an emulator.

      Dinivin

    4. Re:Wine is not an Emulator. by hunterx11 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I would never use "virii" in formal or even semi-formal speech or writing. It would be ludicrous. However, that does not mean that it is "not a word." People use it.

      I certainly don't like seeing diminishing language skills, but that doesn't mean that people always have to be anal retentive. Frankly, it's narrow minded to simply tell someone "YOU ARE WRONG" because you want to force them into a context in which they aren't speaking. APA style isn't the same as MLA style, does that make it wrong? This is a site with "News for Nerds," I don't see why nerd jargon shouldn't be passable.

      --
      English is easier said than done.
  2. Re:His point? by kempokaraterulz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The point being its not a zip file to begin with. its simply disguised as one.

    --
    I have accepted Provolone into my life!
  3. Re:Native ports now! by airConditionedGypsy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Yes, it is a solution. Especially in situations where you have persuaded your friends and relatives to use Linux, but they still want to use some crappy Windows software because they are used to it, and there are no free/open-source ones.

    Furthermore, the 2% of Linux users don't really constitute a meaningful profit motive for these companies. We need to do more to get Linux on the desktop before they'll jump off the MS ship.

    --
    I bootleg Fizzy Lifting Drinks.
  4. No desire by Schezar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's simple. A lot of specialty software is very boring, and there just isn't any interest in the OSS community in developing similar software.

    Many businesses, especially real estate, banking, auto repair, fast food, and hotel management, rely on software written for windows many years ago that, for them, functions just fine.

    They're not techies: computers are not their business. Their business is their business. They're not going to invest resources in developing what they already have just so it can run on "another kind of computer." WINE is the perfect solution for these applications.

    Maybe, years from now, when they're running -ALL- of their software under WINE, they might realize that there's a better way.

    Until then, good luck finding good programmers who are psyched to write hotel reservation management software that will interface an archaic database platform for free.

    Projects like Open Office and The GIMP don't suffer from this problem largely because they're applications that Linux users need on a regular basis. When was the last time you needed to track your fast food orders?

    --
    GeekNights!
    Late Night Radio for Geeks!
  5. Re:Native ports now! by me+at+werk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If we can prove that their programs can run well under linux with just a few tweaks in how it speaks to the system (WINE is a compatibility layer), and possibly even explain to the company how to change their software to speak correctly, it makes it take a lot less of their time to release a native linux version, as they already know how to do it.

    So if you help them help you, we've got native software on Linux. But, that's just my opinion.

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    For context, click Parent.
  6. Isn't this story by arodland · · Score: 2, Insightful

    a couple years old? I'm sure I've seen it before, and I'm pretty sure it was on slashdot.

    1. Re:Isn't this story by gustgr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You don't have to pay to use the search engine down there at left corner of the page, give a shot...

  7. Re:Lack of applications by Metteyya · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's the point. What a pity, there are tenths of replacements on Linux for almost all user activities, but there isn't even one linux-compatible virus project on sourceforge!

  8. Re:Damn worm writers... by einhverfr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Programmers these days, don't they even CARE about cross-platform compatability!?

    Right. At least the Morris Worm was distributed with the Source Code and was cross-platform. Go look for something like this today.

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
  9. Re:Native ports now! by BuhSnarf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Companies wont develop Linux native apps if there isn't the market for them... i.e. Money.

    The problem with the open source movement is that people are used to (and I include myself in this) using software for free. Most people will either use a free alternative or just copy it, crack it etc.

    There just wouldn't be the market. Until there is we're not going to see Linux native apps of big software appear.

    IMHO.

  10. Re:about time. I almost forgot what a virus was by AviLazar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You know MS will place in this their new advertisements:

    "Yes if you get Linux you will have more security flaws then Windows."

    They will be able to get away with "more" because they will tweak the numbers to show "more", just like they are able to show that switching from Windows to Linux on an Enterprise level is more expensive then sticking with Windows.

    --

    I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
  11. Dimwitted confusion by Crash+McBang · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You know, some dimwit is going to read this thread and/or the article and go running to his boss saying, "See? SEE?! Linux has Windows viruses too!"

    Just you wait and see....

    --
    To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
  12. Re:The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Either an extremely low-priority bug, or else not a bug. It depends on whether the virus is actually using a real API in the intended way, or whether the virus is doing something that shouldn't work but does.

    A lot of the viruses use stack-crashing techniques, and there is no way WINE is going to be stack-compatible (no reason anyone would even try to make it stack-compatible!).

    Ideally, WINE should emulate the Windows APIs 100%, except where they choose to implement a higher level of security or something, so ideally the legal parts of worms ought to run. But WINE will never be 100%, and they focus their work on applications people actually *want* to work.