Any security penalties when running Win progs under Ubuntu WINE?

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Q:
Are there any security penalties when running Win progs.
such as the Evernote client,
under *** Wine in Ubuntu *** ?
ie: malware threats, spyware etc…

(just asking…).

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See http://askubuntu.com/questions/10373/do-i-need-to-have-antivirus-software-installed.

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The most obvious issue will be that when you open a windows file it may be infected and you would not know. It would not affect the ubuntu system which will not be affected by windows malware, but may damage your windows work, or damage someone else when you pass that file onwards. Same issue with a VM environment. That’s why even when running linux as an OS an antvirus needs to be used, to at least protect others from transiting windows malware on your linux system.

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Yes, cavehomme – I do see your point,
and the need to run an AV on Ubuntu,
(as a precaution –
if you are using WINE to exec Win-only EXE files in Ubuntu).

Question is,
which Linux AV pgm is:
(a) really effective and
(b) EASY TO USE & maintain…

And finally:
(c) would the Linux AV,
scan & detect malware in a Windows .EXE file ?.
(remember, the Win EXE is running inside Ubuntu, via WINE).

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I think it really depends on what you are using WINE for and how you are using it.

The risk would be if you were to run a malicious file or program under WINE, it would be akin to running the same under Windows. However, the chances are that you will be using Ubuntu’s native software for most of your more risky activities (e.g. checking email, browsing the internet, performing downloads, etc) and only using WINE for one or two specific applications for which you have no native linux alternative.

In this case it depends on the nature of those applications. If they are a few applications which you always use in the same way, with the same data and don’t use them to download or access any files over the internet then the chances are that you are pretty low risk. If, however, for some reason you are running something like a web browser under WINE (what gain there is to doing this I’m not sure) then the risks are much more similar to running the same web browser under Windpows.

If you are doing things that could be considered risky, I would recommend checking the WINE HQ App DB and find a Windows anti-virus program that you can start up when before you start doing anything risky under WINE.

Hope this is helpful

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good points, ec5772
– what you say makes perfect sense.

I’m only using WINE
for non-critical Win pgms (calculators,etc),
w/o Linux equivalents.

Thanks again for your time!.

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SF99,

If it’s only things like calculators then you shouldn’t run into too much trouble. Of course it depends how complicated these ‘calculator’ programs. If they include more advanced features like automatically updating or retrieving data from the internet then that might be different, but for a simple calculator there’s very little to worry about.

Having said that, I’m intrigued to know what type of programs these are that there are no Linux equivalents – I have been using Linux almost exclusively for a number of years now and would be very hard pushed to find a regular program that doesn’t have some equivalent that runs natively in Linux. The exception to this would be if you need to access prioprietary data formats that no Linux program can read, but even in this case the chances are that the data can be exported/converted into a format that can be used in with a native linux program.

Anyway, hope you find this information helpful.

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