Linux computer virus

Linux virus sparks yawns from experts - Industry Trend or Event - Brief Article

MEDINA, Ohio -- News of a virus first is barely raising eyebrows, according to the Anti-Virus Information Exchange Network. W32.Winux's or Lindose's peculiarity is it can infect systems running a 32-bit version of Windows -- and Linux.

According to Ohio-based Central Command, the anti-virus company, which first reported the virus, the non-memory resident virus seeks and infects PE files (Windows executable) and ELF files (Linux executable) large enough to hold the virus body. It doesn't, however, carry a destructive payload, says Vibert, nor does it use a resident e-mail application to send itself to others.

Robert Vibert, moderator for the network of organizational users of anti-virus products, says beyond a single trait there is nothing special about it. "This is simply a virus that's got one particular technical peculiarity to it and the company first decided that was worth some free publicity. They put out a press release on it. Most of the rest of the industry is going, 'Yawn.'"