0

Does installing wine pose a risk of virus infection? I'm afraid a powerful virus can bypass wine sandbox and gain access to root linux.

Thank you.

Richard Holloway
  • 7,456
  • 2
  • 25
  • 30

1 Answers1

5

You can execute native executables inside wine, so if the virus knows what to do with a native executable, and if you have write access to the executable, then it is possible.

Wine is not a sandbox, it is a compatibility layer. There is nothing preventing code from crossing back and forth other than a lack of programmers with the knowledge and desire.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
  • 45,939
  • 6
  • 79
  • 84
  • +1 for 'Wine is not a sandbox', it _does_ make a POSIX system compatible with win32 apps, including viruses – Javier Apr 21 '10 at 12:02
  • Check this out: `http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=72598`. This guy installed some viruses and then posted what happened. That was way back in 2005, when Wine was nowhere near as good at running applications as it is today. I would suggest you assume Linux / UNIX with WINE is no more secure against viruses than Windows. – Richard Holloway Apr 21 '10 at 16:04
  • “Wine is not a sandbox” is spot on. – Mo. Apr 21 '10 at 16:16