If I run Ubuntu and Windows on a single machine in separate partitions, will viruses and other bad migrate between the two operating systems? In other words, will bad stuff under one OS infect the other?
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In case of laptops it can even be possible that malware hides itself in the battery and infects systems from there (there exists some proof of concept malware out there youtube.com/watch?v=i3Fcx009BgE ). But you shouldn't be concerned about that stuff, it's probably more likely to win millions in the lottery than getting infected by the kind of malware you described.– FSMaxBMay 12, 2014 at 22:43
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2 Answers
Could malware feasibly go from one install to another?
To be clear, the malware running on one probably won't run on the other as is... But most malware is more than capable of downloading other malware. That's what most do —by design— to stay alive these days.
And if you can access the other partition, anything else running on your computer can.
So any malware in Windows could detect an Ubuntu install, download Ubuntu-specific malware and drop that on the Ubuntu partition.
Have I ever heard of anything doing this?
No... But I haven't heard of a lot of things.
If you're doing dodgy things in Windows (or Ubuntu) and you don't want that to affect anything else, seal it off from the world. Wrap it up in some proper virtualisation (eg VirtualBox) and disable any sort of sharing with the rest of the system.
If you're just worried about what Windows is doing, just follow the best possible security practices (don't browse dodgy sites, don't download cracked games and applications and use a self-updating browser that isn't IE) and you will probably be fine...
... Probably. There really are no certainties. Even with Ubuntu.
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I'd be more afraid of an asteroid destroying me than I would of windows malware detecting a linux install on an ext partition (that windows can't even read) and successfully installing a mythical "linux virus"– Xen2050May 12, 2014 at 17:51
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1Mythical? What decade are you living in? I freely admit the above is very unlikely but malware isn't limited by the ineptitude of Windows. Malware has repeatedly shown its ability to forensically probe and adapt to system conditions. I'm not describing anything that would be hard to implement, it's just obscure.– Oli ♦May 12, 2014 at 21:27
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I have enough trouble getting programs to run on purpose! But please do enlighten me about any actual live dangerous ubuntu / linux viruses (that aren't just "proof of concept" projects), especially any that infect linux from windows. I've been keeping watch for any reports but the latest news seems to be that windows XP is still on millions of computers and now that it's out of support it seems to be malware target #1.– Xen2050May 14, 2014 at 1:51
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If you only want to react to what already exists, you'll be on the front lines when somebody realises that people migrating away from XP and that dual boots are quite popular... What I've described would only take an afternoon to write and retrofit onto existing Windows malware. And Linux malware isn't mythical or "proof of concept" and I don't really know why you think it would be.– Oli ♦May 14, 2014 at 8:54
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Interesting, infected servers used "to redirect half of a million web visitors to malicious websites and abusing the server bandwidth to send more than 35,000,000 spam messages per day." And from Steinar H. Gunderson: "I don't know how the trojan spreads, but it appears to be either SSH bruteforcing or using the password list captured from other machines." Bad, but still nothing spreading from one installed OS to another, and not even linux being infected directly from user "browsing," and still nothing I'd worry about as a home desktop user (Yet ;)– Xen2050May 15, 2014 at 17:15
It is possible, but I am unaware of any common examples, the probability is low.
If the malware is programmed to recognize other operating systems and write data into the partitions where those OS reside - they could easily look through mounted drives (local or network) search for various executables and inject their code.
But Windows is generally not very good at writing to Linux filesystems, which requires the loading of 3rd party drivers, its going to make the malware bulky and easy to detect (or a lot of effort to obfuscate).
Considering the low number of malware that target Linux specifically (compared to other OS like Mac/Windows), dual booting is even less popular and not worth the effort.
