The "I Love You" on Linux

mollyshark · May 2000

Stolen from my database newsgroup...but couldn't resist given the concern we had on the original:[p]This is the Linux version of 'I Love You' which works on the
honor system.[p]If you receive this mail, you should delete a bunch of GIFs,
MP3s and binaries from your home directory, and send a copy of this e-mail to everyone you know.

Gfw · May 2000

MollyShark, if I were going to take the time to write virus (which I wouldn't), why would I write it for an operating system that only about 2% of the computers use - I might as well go after the other 98%. Just a thought![p]In it's short time out (article as of the middle of last month) 1.5% of all Internet users have already upgraded to Windows 2000.

Cornfed · May 2000

Gfw,[p]If the virus for Linux is anything like much of the other software for Linux, you'll need to read the email, save the attachment, run gunzip filename on it, then tar -xvf filename, then if it's Red Hat specific (which much new Linux stuff is since it's the biggest distro) rpm -uvh filename on it.[p]After this, you'll have to find the executable and run it and watch it not work.[p]I'm a Linux user and like it more than M$ Windoze, but I definitely recognize its shortcomings. The cool thing is if you're running Linux as a user instead of as root, the worst that can happen is that data files will be lost. It's pretty hard to write a virus in Linux that supercedes Unix user protection levels if it's running as a regular non-superuser.[p]Cornfed (president and CEO of Geeks-R-Us)

Cornfed · May 2000

Cornfed,[p]Oops. Had too many "barley pops" tonight. Did too much "scanning" and sadly didn't realize the sarcastic nature of MollyShark's post. Yeah, reading an email then purposefully deleting a bunch of files would pretty much do it![p]As for upgrading to Winslows 2000, there is no virus more dangerous than this choice![p]Geekfed

The "I Love You" on Linux

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