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Windows is the malware compatibility layer for everything Windows NT and all versions of Windows after NT have more security controls than just about any other

Windows is the malware compatibility layer for everything Windows NT and all versions of Windows after NT have more security controls than just about any other operating system as those controls came right out of VMS. They are mostly all disabled or weakened to lower friction and increase adoption. The controls are also weakened by default on Linux but it was late to the party and was not as happy-clicky as Windows thus more friction for less technical people at first. It isn't just security controls. Both Windows and Linux allow memory over-commit by default which can affect stability but improves adoption by developers. All of these things can be hardened at the risk of breaking applications that were coded to the default behavior so to speak. As others mentioned Windows has the highest adoption and usage so it will be the default target. Should Linux take the lead some day it would gain more attention by malware authors. There are plenty of unexplored attack vectors in udev, binfmt mount, eBPF, systemd and how some of those things are glued together currently for a lack of better terminology. This may happen sooner than later if Linux gaming continues to improve at it's current rate. Gaming platforms often code to default behavior or expect elevated privileges thus rendering OS-hardening not an option and not many people will buy a separate gaming machine to keep this isolated from the machine they do taxes, banking, emails, social media, etc...

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
> Should Linux take the lead some day it would gain more attention by malware authors. Android by itself has 50% more devices than Windows.
- richardjam73 3y ago
  GNU/Linux versus Android/Linux
- Bender 3y ago
  I think a key difference is that Android for most people is a mostly-closed ecosystem. Most people can only install that which has been added to the small selection of app stores and the OS configuration is at least partially locked down. There have been an uptick in malware targeting Android [1] just one recent example but people are not installing as many random applications and vulnerable frameworks such as Wordpress or random apps that lack GPG verification, curl | sudo bash. This puts the onus on Google and wireless vendors to manage the security of these devices and most applications. If some day there is a truly open Linux distro on fully unlocked-by-default phones that come with root access enabled and said phones are adopted by the masses and people can tweak the OS however they wish without using debugging tools or installing custom images then I think the phones will almost be on equal footing to Linux desktops, gaming and graphics power aside. They key part being adopted by the masses. Even Android is not a majority market share [2] so people would have to target apps that Android, Apple and others share. [1] - https://www.scmagazine.com/news/malware/letscall-vishing-malware-android https://www.scmagazine.com/news/malware/letscall-vishing-mal... [2] - https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/us-smartphone-market-share https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/us-smartphone-market-share

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago

> Should Linux take the lead some day it would gain more attention by malware authors. Android by itself has 50% more devices than Windows.

richardjam73 3y ago
GNU/Linux versus Android/Linux
Bender 3y ago
I think a key difference is that Android for most people is a mostly-closed ecosystem. Most people can only install that which has been added to the small selection of app stores and the OS configuration is at least partially locked down. There have been an uptick in malware targeting Android [1] just one recent example but people are not installing as many random applications and vulnerable frameworks such as Wordpress or random apps that lack GPG verification, curl | sudo bash. This puts the onus on Google and wireless vendors to manage the security of these devices and most applications. If some day there is a truly open Linux distro on fully unlocked-by-default phones that come with root access enabled and said phones are adopted by the masses and people can tweak the OS however they wish without using debugging tools or installing custom images then I think the phones will almost be on equal footing to Linux desktops, gaming and graphics power aside. They key part being adopted by the masses. Even Android is not a majority market share [2] so people would have to target apps that Android, Apple and others share. [1] - https://www.scmagazine.com/news/malware/letscall-vishing-malware-android https://www.scmagazine.com/news/malware/letscall-vishing-mal... [2] - https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/us-smartphone-market-share https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/us-smartphone-market-share