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I used my USB to transfer files from our library computer in school to my netbook (which is running on Ubuntu).

Next, I used my father's USB to transfer another file from my netbook to his Ubuntu laptop and then the USB got infected. So it means that a virus from the library computer (which runs on Windows 8) got into Ubuntu and I do not know how to remove it.

I have tried using ClamAV but it doesn't seem to work; it does not scan all the files. Is this normal?

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    I do not think the virus got into Ubuntu. The USB drive may be infected, but if you did not run anything from it in wine, there is no need to worry.
    – Pilot6
    Aug 18, 2015 at 11:45
  • Also, see my steps provided here: How do I remove the brontok virus that has infected my Ubuntu via Wine?, if you have wine installed, and you think you may be infected!
    – blade19899
    Aug 18, 2015 at 12:03
  • How do you know you have a virus ? What doit do ?
    – Soren A
    Jul 26, 2017 at 6:08

1 Answer 1

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Next, I used my father's USB to transfer another file from my netbook to his laptop (my USB was with my teacher at the time) and then the USB got infected.

First, how do you know? Have you scanned it? What does the virus do? How did it get there, or do you not know?

So it means that a virus from the library computer (which runs on Windows 8) got into Ubuntu

I'm not sure what you mean here. You plugged a USB with a possible Windows virus into an Ubuntu laptop. Now maybe the virus tries to run itself as soon as you plug it in - I guess that's possible. If it is a Windows virus, maybe it runs this command:

move . C:\Program Files\NotAVirus

to move the virus to program files. But in Ubuntu there is no path called C:\Program Files\NotAVirus, or any move command. A virus running that command here, would get this error:

move: command not found

So lets summarise:

  1. A virus is at school - possible, although unlikely in my opinion.

  2. It moves to your USB (USB 1) - quite possible

  3. It moves to Ubuntu - almost impossible. Okay, so you can write a virus for Linux, and you could even write one for Windows and Linux, but it's 3 or 4 times the amount of coding and gets you maybe 2% extra computers being infected. Unlikely that someone would.

  4. Assuming it is a Cross-OS (Windows and Linux) virus, it moves itself to your Ubuntu laptop, and does what?

If you have WINE installed, so you can run Windows programs (.exe files, like SketchUp or Microsoft Word). A virus could run with WINE, but it is still limited to the artificial WINE environment.

By no means am I saying it hasn't happened, but I really don't think it has.

Have you noticed any files going missing, the computer slowing down, are there any strange processes running in System Monitor, or unusual internet connectivity?

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  • His and his father's computers are running Ubuntu. The only windows machine mentioned here is the school's. If the virus was transferred in the USB, then it came from Wine.
    – Buck
    Aug 18, 2015 at 12:17
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    Viruses in school networks are not as uncommon as they should... We had one in our network for years and those so-called IT guys were not capable of getting rid of it, until finally we got Win7 installed last year or so when XP went EOL... I always had a batch script on my USB sticks with me that automatically removed the virus from the stick before I plugged it out of the school pc. And I don't understand how move . C:\Program Files\NotAVirus should "remove all your files" - sure you did not want to write "copy itself to your disk"?
    – Byte Commander
    Aug 18, 2015 at 13:08
  • Okay, some clarifications So the virus from the library seemingly got transferred to my netbook (I am not sure if I had copied files from the infected USB) which is running Ubuntu; I made this hypothesis because I plugged in my father's USB (it was not infected at first) to my netbook and then I plugged it to my father's laptop which is running Windows. It notified me that it had a virus and then some files in the USB cannot be viewed and/or are corrupted. Aug 19, 2015 at 12:38

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