A virus, spyware writing university course...

[chequita guevara]

In the early-90s, there was a course at my university that taught students how to write virii. One of my coworkers was remarking on it, because he wrote his for a Mac. He kept losing it, because our Macs had anti-virus software (our PCs were like gas station bathroom doorhandles by comparison). I don't see what the big deal is.

[Whoha]

you have to know this stuff for a security class.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I see that you did not answer my question.

There was no question.

You still don't get it -- there are tons of security vulnerabilities for Linux, there are tons for Solaris, there are tons for Windows...

My school is a *nix school, we develop and we're used to Solaris and Linux and AIX.

You probably don't even know what the heap is.

You're the one that called a heap lookaside vulnerability a "stack smashing" vulnerability...then I corrected you on it...and now you're the one saying I don't know what a heap is.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Before the advent of Windows, particularly ActiveX, viruses were hard to write, even on MS-DOS.

This is complete nonsense.

One of the first things you learn in the course is the majority of viruses don't rely on exploits, they rely on social engineering and getting people to run code they didn't want.

The reason there weren't as many before ActiveX and such is because there was no internet on most computers at the time.

You need to get a sense of perspective -- it's not a fundamental Windows issue, it's an issue with it being the dominant platform and a huge anti-social cracker target.

I maintain a general knowledge of how viruses spread is sufficient at this point.

You're clearly not in a position to make such judgement, since you have no clue at all how these spread. You're a perfect candidate to take a course such as this, to get a reality check and dismiss your simple claims that Viruses wouldn't be a problem were it not for Windows...

It's not a simple case of them telling you buzzwords like "stack smashing" and blaming that on how viruses spread, clearly that is not adequate for you at the very least. It's a hands-on exercise, one that teaches you what to look for in vulnerabilities in programs. This is an invaluable skill to learn, and teaches you far more about security.

My school has always had a course like this, minus the name including "virus" (whcih caught PR). Coincidentally, the most secure operating system on Earth -- OpenBSD -- is based in Calgary and its main architects consist of mostly University of Calgary grads.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Asher
One of the first things you learn in the course is the majority of viruses don't rely on exploits, they rely on social engineering and getting people to run code they didn't want.

Those are modern virii. Back in the day, virii were generally boot sector virii, which have nothing to do with social engineering.

[Asher]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Those are modern virii. Back in the day, virii were generally boot sector virii, which have nothing to do with social engineering.

It's not a history course, Che.