Comments by "Immudzen" (@Immudzen) on "This New Malware Targets Linux Job Seekers" video.

Pretty sure this is why Windows has that feature to not run random binaries. You can call it whatever you want and with whatever permissions you want and if it is not signed Windows will warn you and require you to click that you really want to run it. Linux has amazing security against being attacked remotely. However, its security against local issues does need a lot of work. At least for some things it is moving in the right direction. Hopefully we can just bury Xorg soon.
2
@anon_y_mousse It is another example of poor desktop security. Automatically running binaries that look like data files is a very old problem and it really should not be happening anymore. My general point is that while Linux as a server is quite secure as a desktop it is one of the easiest systems to break into out of Mac, Windows, and Linux because of a lot of these little issues. From auto-running programs like this to how lockscreens work and shatter attacks.
2
@anon_y_mousse It is not just as insecure. For instance the lockscreen on Xorg runs as the user it is locked for and it is an overlay on top of your system. If you crash it you can crash it to the desktop and see everything. There have even been bugs where you could connect another monitor and access things on that screen because the lockscreen was not covering that area. On Windows and Mac the lockscreen is a login process to a user with no desktop, if you login it switches you to the right users desktop. It means if you crash the lockscreen you can't ever end up on a users desktop. This bug has repeatedly happened and it is inherent to the design of X11. It makes Linux as a desktop less secure.
2
@anon_y_mousse The windows method is not security through obscurity. That is a completely documented and best practice way of handling logins. It is just not one that X11 is capable of. Sure you can come up with cases where someone does not have X running by default. However, if you have a computer that is a windows desktop/laptop it would be extremely rare to have it start in console mode and then manually switch it to gui mode. None of the major distros do that.
2