Is there ANTI-VIRUS software for hpux

[Lee Huei]

Hi,

As far as i know hpux requires security patches for vulnerability. I was asked is there any black n white to say that hpux does not need anti virus?

Thanks

[Mei Jiao · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can search for this document ID: KBRC00008034
Can HP-UX be attacked by a virus?

Hope it helps.

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi,

HP-UX is not directly attacked by viruses the way Windows is attacked but it can be affected by viruses on the network. For ex., recent blaster worm on windows could cause the dced on UNIX systems to become unresponsive .

The viruses on HP are trojan horses like malicious binaries kept in the path of root that can open up holes,suid files, buffer overflow attacks and can cause equivalent damage to HP systems. With regular security scans, patch updates and minimizing access to the system, you can minimize the affect.

-Sri

[Bill Hassell]

HP-UX, like many commercial versions of Unix that are not based on an Intel, are just not attractive to virus writers. They are very seldom directly connected to the Internet and when they are, good security prevents access. And because the boot records and documentation about the boot loader are not readily available, it requires enormous effort with little satisfaction when trying to propagate malicious code. And while email viruses have zero effect on HP-UX (attachments can never execute because the CPU hardware is incompatible), an email with a virus can be stored and forwarded under HP-UX.

That is not to say that HP-UX is secure out of the box. Rather (like other versions of Unix) most services are enabled out of the box and requires active configuration to remove potential backdoors. That is changing with the next version of HP-UX where you can pick one of 4 levels of security from tools only to DMZ level.

So prevention is always better than repair. Get a copy of Bastille from software.hp.com and run it on all your machines. And for the really secure machines, install the Host Intruder Detection System (also from software.hp.com) along with SSH and other security tools.

[Steven E. Protter]

All of the above is exactly what I'd write. Except better than I'd right it. :-)

I have never heard of anti-virus software for HP-UX. There really is no need for it.

If you are using your HP-9000 server as a mail storage or relay server it most certainly can transmit viruses that are contained within mail messages themselves.

These will do no damage to HP-UX but can do lots of nasty things to your users.

I know of people that openned up their /var/mail directories in samba and used Norton Anti Virus to scan the mail and detect viruses. Its really better to do that on the client though.

If you really feel the need to do this, there is open source software that might work on HP-UX.

Some Linux products can be compiled in HP-UX.
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=433027

This thread if I remember is a repeat of this thread.
http://search.hp.com/redirect.html?url=http%3A//forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do%3FthreadId%3D28626&qt=anti+%2Bvirus+%2Blinux+%2Bunix&hit=1

My own profile coughs up a thread and products due to a customer inquiry in my private practice.

My profile won't open right now but its way back when on the first or second page of the my questions link.

SEP

[Banibrata Dutta_1]

well, with the experts having responded already on the core topic, i will just add another dimension to the problem and respond to it.

even Linux has several anti-virus softwares available that run on it, but actually they do not detect viruses in .EXE or .COM files that run on Linux (of course .EXE & .COM do not run under linux anyway, except via WINE or things like VmWare), but rather they are used as a "filter" in the E-mail servers i.e. the SMTS & POP server daemon hosted on Linux servers. So these linux based anti-virus programs do look into e-mail attachments which could be .SCR, VB-scripts, .COM, .EXE, MsWord Macro Viruses in attached Word documents etc.!!

so a related question may be, are such software available on HP-UX ?

my 2 cents worth,
bd

[Stefan Schulz]

Hi,

as far as i know HP-UX doesnt need anti-virus software to protect itselfe. But there are scanners available to protect windows users form infected files residing on a HP-UX system (email, samba ...)

At least Sophos has several scanners available running under HP-UX. Have a look at http://www.sophos.com .

But again these scanners are not to protect your HP-UX server they will protect your Windows Clients.

Hope this helps

Regards Stefan