Microsoft Explains More About Their Windows Subsystem For Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Microsoft Explains More About Their Windows Subsystem For Linux

At the end of March was the announcement about Ubuntu's user-space coming to Windows 10 via the Windows Subsystem for Linux implemented in the Windows kernel. There's a new Microsoft blog post explaining more of the inner-workings of WSL...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Windows-Subsys-For-Linux

[jrch2k8]

So, there is finally an actual factual reason to buy a Linux Antivirus now.

Yaaay

[Xaero_Vincent]

I wonder what the current status of the Linux Unified Kernel is? That project tried to implement Windows system calls and driver model into the Linux kernel and ran Win PE binaries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longene

The Windows Subsystem for Linux is interesting technology but bound to be plagued by the same problems that Wine has--namely that not all apps will work on it, especially those that require compiled kernel modules.

I had a chance to try out Bash on Windows the other day. I made a video briefly testing WSL along with some other apps and games a few days ago:

[jbysmith]

So, there is finally an actual factual reason to buy a Linux Antivirus now.

Yaaay

Umm Linux isn't immune to malware, just nobody much cares for the desktop. Immune? How did that go for android? Or even kernel.org and their rootkit?

[jrch2k8]

Umm Linux isn't immune to malware, just nobody much cares for the desktop. Immune? How did that go for android? Or even kernel.org and their rootkit?

Immune?? no but is extremely hard to achieve compared to how damn easy is on windows(in fact you can take control of a Win10 system with less than 50 .NET LoCs and that is overkill compared to attacking remotely Edge or IE).

Android is a completely different case since it makes no sense to attack linux when you can easily spoof the VM and since ARM is a clusterfuck where basically every phone have a completely different kernel version/build is even more annoying(note android disable lots of security features too that can be annoying to the final users).

So, in resume yes it is possible to compromise linux but it can get really hard and most of the time is very dependant on the target system kernel/distro/compiler/application specific versions and even when you succeed is not easy to mass apply it either or take down the entire OS the way is possible on Windows.

so what you are saying is, rob a bank should easy because my "secure little wood box" can be opened too and i heard people rob banks, sure but that doesn't mean the level of expertise and effort are nearly the same, that why people put jewels on banks and not under the bed in a wood box

google this stuff you will be amazed, is really interesting

[david_lynch]

Umm Linux isn't immune to malware, just nobody much cares for the desktop. Immune? How did that go for android? Or even kernel.org and their rootkit?

Well, nobody's ever said anything is "immune" as far as I know - but let's face it, unix OSes have long been much harder to pwn than pee cee OSes. And I'm not sure what the "desktop" has to do with the question. Linux is prevalent on the internet, with plenty of high value targets. You think nobody's interested? Nah, it's just that there's low hanging fruit, easy microsoft targets that can be had for far less effort. After all, don't hackers sell pwned windows boxes in blocks of 10,000, dirt cheap?

[jbysmith]

Well, nobody's ever said anything is "immune" as far as I know - but let's face it, unix OSes have long been much harder to pwn than pee cee OSes. And I'm not sure what the "desktop" has to do with the question. Linux is prevalent on the internet, with plenty of high value targets. You think nobody's interested? Nah, it's just that there's low hanging fruit, easy microsoft targets that can be had for far less effort. After all, don't hackers sell pwned windows boxes in blocks of 10,000, dirt cheap?

Well desktops as in home users... You think malware appears out of thin air? No. 99.9% of the time it's user error that allowed it on the system. Of course those aren't going to target internet servers... They target vulnerabilities I the servers instead. Unix operating systems are no harder to take over... Just look at all the malware on android for proof. If you can fool a clueless user, you've won, no os can save you from yourself. Let's be honest, the only treason why gnu/Linux had so little as with 1% market share, nobody feels it's worth the effort to do for the most part.. Times are changing though, just last year linux had its first ransomware.

[CuriousTommy]

I wonder what the current status of the Linux Unified Kernel is? That project tried to implement Windows system calls and driver model into the Linux kernel and ran Win PE binaries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longene

The Windows Subsystem for Linux is interesting technology but bound to be plagued by the same problems that Wine has--namely that not all apps will work on it, especially those that require compiled kernel modules.

I had a chance to try out Bash on Windows the other day. I made a video briefly testing WSL along with some other apps and games a few days ago:

What is WSL?

Edit: Nevermind ( Windows Subsystem for Linux)

How did you run Windows 10 like that?

[jrch2k8]

Well desktops as in home users... You think malware appears out of thin air? No. 99.9% of the time it's user error that allowed it on the system. Of course those aren't going to target internet servers... They target vulnerabilities I the servers instead. Unix operating systems are no harder to take over... Just look at all the malware on android for proof. If you can fool a clueless user, you've won, no os can save you from yourself. Let's be honest, the only treason why gnu/Linux had so little as with 1% market share, nobody feels it's worth the effort to do for the most part.. Times are changing though, just last year linux had its first ransomware.

Again misinformed rant, android basically uses a minimal kernel so they don't have to write a kernel at google, the malware attacks very specific android code and the android VM, the malware won't work outside android ever or any other form of linux kernel without bionic and the VM java stack(aka is not related to linux).

Second that ransomware affect only idiots that uses Magento and don't fix their privileges or sandboxed the process and the vulnerability was reported feb 9, 2015(aka quite long before was attacked). Fix don't be a lazy ass and update your distro and never let your webserver run with 0777 permissions or with root users privileges to save some keystrokes, specially since magento propietary have a mile long list of CSS vulnerabilities and they aren't exactly fast to patch them, so use the security tools provided by linux and at least use a container(nspawn - LXC -KVM) or selinux or acls or cgroups or common sense, really this kind of attacks should warrant to just fire the system admin on the spot no question asked.

I agree there is no security fix for idiocy on any O.S, but again you are using a vague general comparison of several random half truths to just say "Meh nothing is secure so why bother" that could mislead security noobs into believing that some divine force will protect their data instead of properly preparing and make a proper O.S choice based on their security need. (i suspect trolling but whatever).

Anyone reading this thread should take things with a grain of salt and instead properly inform yourself about the security internals of every O.S and make your own personal test, to ensure you can reach an informed decision about your system's protection

[liam]

Immune?? no but is extremely hard to achieve compared to how damn easy is on windows(in fact you can take control of a Win10 system with less than 50 .NET LoCs and that is overkill compared to attacking remotely Edge or IE).

Android is a completely different case since it makes no sense to attack linux when you can easily spoof the VM and since ARM is a clusterfuck where basically every phone have a completely different kernel version/build is even more annoying(note android disable lots of security features too that can be annoying to the final users).

So, in resume yes it is possible to compromise linux but it can get really hard and most of the time is very dependant on the target system kernel/distro/compiler/application specific versions and even when you succeed is not easy to mass apply it either or take down the entire OS the way is possible on Windows.

so what you are saying is, rob a bank should easy because my "secure little wood box" can be opened too and i heard people rob banks, sure but that doesn't mean the level of expertise and effort are nearly the same, that why people put jewels on banks and not under the bed in a wood box

google this stuff you will be amazed, is really interesting

Android is absolutely more secure than most any ootb distro.
You can also infiltrate Linux remotely, and if you're local, the grsec guy has a few videos up showing how to get around selinux (I doubt most of them still work, but I'd also get he's aware of other exploitable code).
Linux really needs to move towards doing root altogether. I know this is just a massive pain but seccomp2 is truly useful (despite what Mozilla thinks). Capsicum is what we really need, though. That should allow us a path to simply getting rid of root (which seems, to me, to be the direction at least some Linux distros are heading).