Is Linux as vulnerable as Windows? If it’s safer, is it still possible to create a WannaCRY?

There is the potential to do so, just not with this.

The problem is getting the user to run it. The existing virus uses a vulnerability in Windows SMB handling.

Most Linux systems don’t support it, though the protocol is available in the SAMBA project. The SAMBA code is not the same as Windows, it doesn’t work the same way, and is not vulnerable.

The next problem is that the virus will be limited to just the files the user has write access to. No database files will be affected as they run as a different user. Some file management software could be affected as the files used are owned by the user affected.

Some word viruses may work on linux… if the user is using Microsoft Office via something like Wine or Crossover. But that is because it is Microsoft Office that is vulnerable.

Flash viruses may work… The “may” is because though the vulnerable application is Flash, because it is on Linux, some things don’t work quite the same way.

There is some possiblity that javascript (or java even) viruses might get by…

Email viruses/worms tend not to work – by default, no file is given execute permissions… thus trying to execute it fails. Doing so indirectly (by running a javascript/java interpreter to then interpret the file) is possible. Now it depends on whether the specific interpreter is vulnerable.

For the most part, no Windows virus works on Linux. The protection architecture is different, the controls are different, the system calls and runtimes are different.