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I don’t use AV and I’ve never gotten a virus on my machine regardless of OS, except when I was 12 compiling virus code from the ezine 40Hex. I don’t run untrust

I don’t use AV and I’ve never gotten a virus on my machine regardless of OS, except when I was 12 compiling virus code from the ezine 40Hex. I don’t run untrusted executables, seems simple to me. Then I see my non-technical friends and family with 90 icons on their desktop and 6 years of files in their Downloads folder and you see how it happens.

sealeck 4y ago
What about exploits like bugs in compression algorithms or Javascript (with speculative execution)?
- user3939382 4y ago
  It's possible, definitely. I've had some amount of luck. But I think if we had good measurements we'd find that getting a virus through those means on personal machines is rare.
- olyjohn 4y ago
  What about exploits that target the malware scanner itself?
  - eyelidlessness 4y ago
    Or where the malware scanner could reasonably be called malware itself.
TillE 4y ago
There was a really bad Dark Ages of remote exploits which peaked around the early Windows XP era. The OS itself and Internet Explorer were a horror show. Other than that, yes, it's been fairly rare to have malware infections that don't start with tricking the user into executing a binary, though it certainly can happen.
- MBCook 4y ago
  In 30+ years of having computers I’ve had issues twice. Once was on in the 3.11 days. Turned out the copy of KidPix we bought had a virus on the installation disks. The other was in the late 2000s at work on XP. I got got some piece of malware (showed ads IIRC) from a drive by using a Java exploit in an applet showed by an ad network. If you’re not doing high-risk stuff it’s not hard to avoid. But I’m glad MacOS has this built in just in case (like MSE on Windows).
hollerith 4y ago
>I’ve never gotten a virus on my machine How would you know? Maybe you got a virus that looked around for bitcoin it could steal, didn't find any, and gave you no signs of its existence.
- Underphil 4y ago
  You're dead on. I hear this from 'power users' quite often. Not sure what they're expecting to see from a virus.
  - user3939382 4y ago
    These days, most likely a full-screen ransomware message.
- tpxl 4y ago
  I install and run an AV every couple of years on my old Windows 7 machine and so far it hasn't found anything malicious.
boston_clone 4y ago
I can't help but think that if everyone was compiling malware at 12, we'd probably need significantly more advanced anti-malware.
deleted 4y ago
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sealeck 4y ago

What about exploits like bugs in compression algorithms or Javascript (with speculative execution)?

user3939382 4y ago
It's possible, definitely. I've had some amount of luck. But I think if we had good measurements we'd find that getting a virus through those means on personal machines is rare.
olyjohn 4y ago
What about exploits that target the malware scanner itself?
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  Or where the malware scanner could reasonably be called malware itself.

TillE 4y ago

There was a really bad Dark Ages of remote exploits which peaked around the early Windows XP era. The OS itself and Internet Explorer were a horror show. Other than that, yes, it's been fairly rare to have malware infections that don't start with tricking the user into executing a binary, though it certainly can happen.

MBCook 4y ago
In 30+ years of having computers I’ve had issues twice. Once was on in the 3.11 days. Turned out the copy of KidPix we bought had a virus on the installation disks. The other was in the late 2000s at work on XP. I got got some piece of malware (showed ads IIRC) from a drive by using a Java exploit in an applet showed by an ad network. If you’re not doing high-risk stuff it’s not hard to avoid. But I’m glad MacOS has this built in just in case (like MSE on Windows).

hollerith 4y ago

>I’ve never gotten a virus on my machine How would you know? Maybe you got a virus that looked around for bitcoin it could steal, didn't find any, and gave you no signs of its existence.

Underphil 4y ago
You're dead on. I hear this from 'power users' quite often. Not sure what they're expecting to see from a virus.
- user3939382 4y ago
  These days, most likely a full-screen ransomware message.
tpxl 4y ago
I install and run an AV every couple of years on my old Windows 7 machine and so far it hasn't found anything malicious.

boston_clone 4y ago

I can't help but think that if everyone was compiling malware at 12, we'd probably need significantly more advanced anti-malware.

deleted 4y ago

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