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As the title suggest, is it really possible that a virus/malware/spyware or anything bad that will affect my pc, will be transferable and "AUTO-RUN" from a USB with files copied from a Windows OS(maybe infected/maybe not) to Ubuntu 16.04? As I was doing some reading here in the community, many amongst the users had concluded that there is no use for an AV in Ubuntu OS, hence I followed, since I am a new user and still studying/reading almost everything. Or will it require everytime the user password and "NO AUTOMATIC THINGS" will be installed in my Ubuntu PC" ?

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    Welcome to Ubuntu, I would thing any such virus would target Window architecture hence will not comfortably run. That being said Linux in my experience is more safe than Windows
    – George Udosen
    Apr 24, 2018 at 6:50
  • @ Melebius, in the link you provided, I did not see nor read any mention of a "possible" usb with windows virus and transfer to Ubuntu. I am worried that copying of files from windows to ubuntu thru a usb might be dangerous since I do not have any antivirus in my Ubuntu PC.
    – Harold
    Apr 24, 2018 at 7:54
  • @ Karel, thanks for the response. However, after checking the link as well as checking the website- usbguard.github.io , I'm sorry to say, but I am not that technical to understand the terminologies being used like "daemon"/"compilation"/"kernel", etc. As I understood it, if I install the software, the usb port in my PC will not read the usb that I inserted if there is malicious software? Or am I wrong?
    – Harold
    Apr 24, 2018 at 9:25
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    @Harold “I did not see nor read any mention of a "possible" usb with windows virus and transfer to Ubuntu.” Yes, it does not explicitly speak about USB since it’s just one of the ways to get files to your computer. “copying of files from windows to ubuntu thru a usb might be dangerous” Please read again the linked answer(s): “Threats don't transfer from one OS to another” Further reading: howtogeek.com/135392/…, makeuseof.com/tag/linux-antivirus-firewall etc.
    – Melebius
    Apr 24, 2018 at 9:36
  • USBGuard generates a policy for your system that specifies what happens each time you insert a USB device. Technical as it is, the user can configure USBGuard to have whatever policy is selected for it to have and it will block whatever is selected to be blocked.
    – karel
    Apr 24, 2018 at 9:40

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I use the same USB stick on both my Ubuntu and my Windows PC. Normally, Windows viruses should not be able to affect your Ubuntu OS, because the viruses that affect your Windows PC are written for Windows and don't do their 'work' on a Linux OS such as Ubuntu.

However, Ubuntu is getting more popular and therefore it may become more profitable to write viruses for Ubuntu. A lot of people claim that you should not worry about viruses on Ubuntu, but nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to install anti-virus programs written for Ubuntu. ClamAV is one that is regularly updated. You may find an old version of it in the Ubuntu software repository which you can find on your ribbon, but I would recommend you install the latest version which you can find on the ClamAV site. It does come with instructions and a readme file.

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  • “Ubuntu is getting more popular and therefore it may be become more profitable to write viruses for Ubuntu” It’s also been said about Macs and there are still about 10 malware pieces for them although their market share is more than 8 % as of now. The reason to have an antivirus on a *nix OS (including Ubuntu and macOS) is still questionable since UNIX uses a security model much different from Windows.
    – Melebius
    Apr 24, 2018 at 9:43
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    One more objection: “it doesn't hurt to install anti-virus programs written for Ubuntu” According to my experience, it does hurt. Running an antivirus reduces the performance of the computer.
    – Melebius
    Apr 26, 2018 at 6:29
  • Interesting to know. Of course this is due to the fact that you've got another program running. Will bare that in mind.
    – alternative_be
    Apr 26, 2018 at 9:09
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    Not just "another program". A program that does a a lot of I/O... And when it sees a compressed format, it uncompresses it to check the contents.
    – xenoid
    Apr 26, 2018 at 9:34
  • @xenoid Thank you for this piece of information. It makes me wonder why programs such as Clamav are being developed and what do they scan for? You've got me convinced that we don't need antivirus for Ubuntu
    – alternative_be
    Apr 26, 2018 at 9:39

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