[cw-discuss] MS Outlook & Viruses

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 27.09.2007 21:44, Jeremy White wrote:
> [lots of good explanations snipped]
> Third, even if a virus were able to be run, it will be constrained by the Unix
> system as to the damage it can do.  Since CrossOver is meant to be run by a
> regular user, you're first protected by Unix's proper user security system;
> the virus cannot harm anything further than your user account.  Second, a
> Windows virus will generally only know of Windows file systems; if it destroys
> your entire virtual C: drive, well that's very easily recreated and you've lost
> no data.

However, such a virus/exploit can access/modify/delete all your user
data, which would be your entire home directory and all other
directories where you have write permissions under Unix. For access
only, read permissions are sufficient.
Note that such viruses/exploits can do the same if they manage to target
your main operating system or the native applications running under it.

In any case, you can use features built into your operating system to
confine Crossover and the applications running under Crossover. If
you're really paranoid, there is hardware available which will restore
your system state on every boot, making sure that (assuming your saved
state is clean) your system is clean on every boot. However, if you
intend to store data files somewhere which are not subject to that
procedure, evil data files can persist and potentially cause undesired
operation any time they are accessed.

Concluding remark: As long as you use a computer and your hardware or
software has no proof (mathematical sense) of correctness, you are
subject to various potential attacks. However, threat mitigation (virus
scanner, application confinement) will suffice for almost anyone on this
list.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel