Torvalds patches Linux kernel, fixes broken virus

Luckily Linux viruses are not an issue. If they were, the speed in which this patch was being release might have me somewhat concerned. Call me paranoid, but I would like to see better security preparedness as this OS continues to grow.

The hacker who created a widely reported cross-platform virus that could affect both Windows and Linux PCs may have inadvertently done some free bug testing for the Linux operating system. On Wednesday Linux creator Linus Torvalds said he had patched his operating system kernel to fix a bug that had been preventing the virus from running.

The virus, called Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a, was first reported by security vendor Kaspersky Lab on April 7, which labeled it an interesting proof of concept program, because of its ability to affect both Windows and Linux.

After discovering the virus did not work on recent versions of Linux, open-source developers did a little investigative work and discovered that this was due to an obscure bug in the compiler used by Linux. News of this bug was first reported on the NewsForge.com Web site…. Source: Network World

[tags]developers,torvalds,newsforge,operating system kernel[/tags]