Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

Professional virus writers often target only small group of machines. They sell bot networks, and these are more likely not to be noticed by anti-virus software developers when virus is not spread wide. It would be possible to use N900 for e.g. sending spam even though wireless mobile device hasn't got the best performance. Also there's no anti-virus software for N900 and root access is not protected.

Though i'm sure that this forum would notice a virus right away.

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

Actually I would feel better if sudo access without passwor was restricted to the application manager (although this also opens root access to malicious packages, but at least its only packages )

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

MSN has a SPAM problem. It's likely to have nothing to do with Maemo - rather, it's probably friends with viruses on their computers.

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

I don't get the problem with setting a password - I don't think it impedes usability. Works well enough on Ubuntu!

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

While I haven't tried it, I think it would be quite easy to require a password for root access. Read up on the sudoers file. You'll find a line in it concerning gainroot.

I don't want to give step by step instructions here because it's too easy to lock yourself out of the device if you make a mistake, so it's best you read up on it. It's a relatively simple change.

If you do decide you want to undertake the change, make sure you use visudo rather than editing the sudoers file directly. A misplaced space could spell your doom!

Cheers,
Jan

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

What happens to app manager when you set a password to protect root account?

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

I think gainroot is a separate account to the one App Manager uses. Might be wrong here..

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

Nothing happens. App manager doesn't rely on a root password. Installing openssh asks you to set the root password anyway.

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

Sudo != root. Sudo is with respect to the user, not the "root" account.

Most of the stuff you do as a user that would normally require "root" rights, like the app manager, are actually using Sudo. Sudo grants the *user* temporary root rights to run the applications.

Sudo has been configured to grant user the right to be root with specific commands *without a password*. Meaning that if you set a root or user password it won't matter because sudo has been told "don't ask".

The way Ubuntu does it, is it has two wrapper programs: gksu and gksudo. Your user account has a password that only you are supposed to know, when you launch Synaptic or whatever package manager *that* sudo has been told "Ask for a Password" and it uses gksudo/su to prompt a GUI password box for you to put that into.

AFAIK: No gui password prompt program is available for the N900 and thus that specific solution would require manual work in making one. The other possibility is you set yourself a user password (leave root locked unless you have specific reason to need it), and then completely change your sudoers file to prompt for a password in order to gain root.

However, you would then need to go through and modify every .desktop file and have it launch in a terminal window instead of directly so that your terminal will ask for the password. Not elegant, and certainly not easy... not to mention extremely likely to brick the device unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

Given the sample size of the software for N900 it's unlikely for anyone to ever get a virus. Though it's possible that something that targets Debian could be adjusted accordingly.

However, it would have to be "download and install" and it would need to be on -likely- this forum, since no virus is complete if it attacks ONE machine. Once here, people would likely complain and the package would fail.

The reason why Windows has such a problem has nothing to do with community or support - it's pretty much impossible to get through these days. Ten years ago, on home OSs, maybe.

What Windows has is the average userbase and the sheer size of it. As a Windows admin I've seen my share of viruses and in all cases there's some user looking at the floor muttering something about "I installed this and that".

I don't even think there's such a a thing as a virus any more - last I've seen is CIH. Nowadays they're all trojans.

Make no mistake, if a billion people would have N900 and the right to install-from-anywhere, there'd be a million of the little buggers. For now, however, stick to repositories. Even better, stick with official ones. I'm guessing that the push to Extras gets someone to at least skim the code.

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

spam you recieve on msn is NOT you're fault, its your friends that have the viruses.

antivirus
 

hey guys,i am new to this forum and i would like to ask if i need an antivirus for my N900.

Re: antivirus
 

No you don't need any

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

The following threads were combined to make this thread:

• "AntiVirus" with twenty-nine posts
• "Virus risks?" with thirteen posts
• "Anti Virus" with three posts
• "Anti-virus pgm for N810?" with twenty-seven posts
• "Can N900 get a virus?" with nineteen posts
• "antivirus" with two posts

I'm leaving this thread in "General" as this topic is a FAQ that spans all Maemo versions.

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

What about pop ups that wont go away? Is there any way to stop this?

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

That's java-script scare tactics. It works best on windows users and the .exe you have there is a neat trojan ;)

Re: Can N900 get a virus?
 

sudo can be configured to have a grace period with no password required after sudo with a password has been run. So, without changing any .desktop files or altering anything except a one time change to sudo configuration, a user could open a terminal session and type:
and enter the user password, then take any other action that invokes sudo and not need a password. After timestamp_timeout expires without a sudo command being executed, a password is again required. The default it to always require a password. timestamp_timeout is set by /etc/sudoers. The n900 /etc/sudoers file does not have an entry present for timestamp_timeout, so that would have to be added and the NOPASSWD entries would have to be changed as well.

Re: Is there a Facebook Plugin for N900?
 

Hey guys,does the N900 need an antivirus and how do u use the secondary camera on the phone,cos i cant get mine on,sorry i had to buzz in cos am going off and on,could any 1 help

Re: Is there a Facebook Plugin for N900?
 

N900 is based on Linux and I haven't heard of a virus out for Linux yet. Most Linux antiVirus software packages just scan for virus' on other platforms to avoid passing them on in infected programs.

If you mean the camera facing the user then the app in question needs to support it. Video calls over GTalk can work with it if the other end supports video calling too.

Anti virus for nokia N900
 

hi the owners of 900
as we are just a step back to have USB support for our device.
in case if it ll support flash disks and other storage devices as well.
don't we need a kind of antivirus to protect our device????

Re: Anti virus for nokia N900
 

See the thing that really perplexes me about this is it says;

I can still barely make out what your trying to convey - I am just going to have to assume your first language isn't English.

I don't know where to begin exactly, but there is NO NEED for Maemo anti-virus software.

Re: Anti virus for nokia N900
 

x86 based viruses will not do much to ARM based phones. Like the N900.

All it will do is probably crash the system. At most.

Re: Anti virus for nokia N900
 

There's not yet anyone much programming malware for Maemo. Once upon a time there were no need for MS DOS antivirus either. But thinking security on ANY platform is good practice, even if there's no known exploits - yet.

Virus is an outdated term anyway, I would believe a rootkit is a more reasonable threat to worry about on this micro-webserver known as N900.

Edit: and of course, transmitting viruses. If you first hook this up as a drive on a virus infected machine, and then on another machine, the virus may be transferred.

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

The thread "Anti virus for nokia N900" with four posts has been merged into this thread.

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

Today I used my N800. I connected to the Internet as usual but had to remove Skype for the umpteenth time because the call button was again greyed out. When I went to Skype to reload it, I got the msg. untrusted certificate. Sadly I was in a hurry and did not inspect the certificate. I kept getting this msg. Every time after the first, I just hit cancel. Eventually when I hit the browser icon, it would say web loading. But it would not load. I also got the msg. that my browser had "no home" page.

When I got the N800, everyone bragged about how Nokia kept supporting "older" devices. Now I see that people who want to support MeeGo for the N800 are having their forum comments closed. As someone said Maemo is a "quirky" OS. The people who want to port Android to the N800 do not seem to be getting the necessary support. Are we left holding the empty box and a brick when we fail to check a certificate?

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

Surely that's because they're redundant, what with a lively discussion taking place on the MeeGo forums themselves.

This is because Android requires custom drivers for things like 3D that require sources Nokia cannot distribute.

Also, I believe your post is off-topic for this thread.

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

wmarone said "Also, I believe your post is off-topic for this thread."

This thread is about virus. If talking about a virus is off-topic then I guess anything that reveals a flaw from Nokia is off-topic.

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

Hi Oouc - the reason why talking about flaws or bugs in a thread about virus's is off-topic is because these are different things.

A virus is a malicious application intended to compromise a computer, whereas a bug is a legitimate application behaving in unintended ways through programmatical errors.

You would be better off posting your comments about the issues with skype in a more relavent thread, as you are most likely to get better suggestions or help.

Anti Virus Software
 

Hi.. Are there any anti-virus software available for Nokia N900..

There are many for Symbian versions.. so is any app expected for the N900 soon??

N900 is designed to be online 24/7 (although not all mayb), hence it is a very important that we have some good Anti-virus app like Norton, AVG, Mcafee etc.. for the Nokia N900..

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

The thread "Anti Virus Software" (1 post) has been merged into this thread.

Re: Anti Virus Software
 

Find a virus that runs on N900 first. Then we'll talk :)

Re: Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

First to find a linux virus, then to port it for ARM... tough job...