Wine for mac windows compiler mac os x#
Wine for mac windows compiler mac os#
Wine for mac windows compiler software#
Wine for mac windows compiler code#

The term malware refers to malicious software created with the intention of compromising a computer system or destroying data . Dynamic analysis (both automated and manual) was compared to assess how successful each sample of malware was in terms of running in the Linux environment. In this study, thirty samples of Windows malware were run in Windows and then run on a Linux system using Wine. This paper describes a study conducted to investigate the level of threat that the use of Wine potentially presents to Linux systems, and to determine if any specific types of malware or malware behavior have a significant effect on the malware being successful in Wine.

The level of security risk that Wine poses to Linux users is largely undocumented. The fact that it enables Windows software to run in Linux environment introduces the possibility of running Windows malware on an otherwise secure Linux machine. The use of compatibility layer software may present a security threat to Linux users. Wine works by translating functions that are Windows specific into a format that can be understood by Linux (or other POSIX systems) .

Wine for mac windows compiler mac os#

Wine is the defacto compatibility layer for running Windows applications on POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.

This results in Linux users needing compatibility layer software if they wish to run Windows software on their Linux operating system. However, many software developers do not create their software for Linux, and choose to focus on creating packages for operating systems with the highest market shares, such as Windows, which has traditionally held the highest market share of desktop PCs and laptops. Common practice is to not run anti-malware software on Linux systems. Furthermore, Linux software repositories provide a trusted source for software installation, which also reduces the likelihood of malware on Linux. Although malware exists that targets Linux systems, this is relatively rare: the majority of malware targets Windows systems (in part due to targeting of market share). Linus’s Law states that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” .

Wine for mac windows compiler code#

It has also been suggested that the availability of source code allows Linux bugs and security related programming issues to be easily spotted and patched by the community .

Wine for mac windows compiler mac os x#

Linux compares favorably to Windows and Mac OS X in terms of security features, such as mandatory access controls and file permissions. The relative security of operating systems has long been the subject of debate. As a consequence, the success of some samples can be determined from observing the API calls when run within a Windows environment. This suggests that particular malware samples that utilize these API calls will never run completely successfully in a Linux environment. However, certain API calls could not be recreated in a Linux environment, and led to failure of malware to execute via Wine. No significant relationships were discovered between the success of the malware and its high-level behavior or malware type. Five samples of Windows malware were run successfully through Wine on a Linux system. The study results provide evidence that Wine can pose serious security implications when used to run Windows software in a Linux environment. The behavior was compared to determine malware success in Wine. Behavior analyzed included file system, registry, and network access, and the spawning of processes, and services.

Dynamic analysis (both automated and manual) was applied to 30 malware samples both in a Windows environment and Linux environment running Wine. This project was conducted to assess the security implications of using Wine, and to determine if any specific types of malware or malware behavior have a significant effect on the malware being successful in Wine. Wine is a popular compatibility layer for running Windows programs on Linux. However, many popular software applications released on other platforms cannot run natively on Linux. Linux is considered to be less prone to malware compared to other operating systems, and as a result Linux users rarely run anti-malware.