[PJJ]

My Linux/Linspire box has picked up a MS virus in e-mail and is holding it in the swap file.
I know the virus will not be able to affect my system but it might migrate to other MS computers, isn't it?

I attempted to quarantine the swap file.
Did not work.

I renamed the swap file.
It reverted back to old name.

How do I get the virus out of the swap file?
Any ideas, please?


PS: I have used Klamav and Virus Scanner to locate the virus.

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The swap file is needed for the system. Typically with a Linux system the swap is a partition, but you can run it from file on a filesystem.

The swap is just temp. space to write pages from memory, so you could just boot to single user and wipe the file out.

What type of partition is the system running on? For the most part Windoze does not know about Linux partitions, so it can not spread, but if it is running from a partition which Windoze knows about, then it could.

[Kemasa]

The swap file is needed for the system. Typically with a Linux system the swap is a partition, but you can run it from file on a filesystem.

The swap is just temp. space to write pages from memory, so you could just boot to single user and wipe the file out.

What type of partition is the system running on? For the most part Windoze does not know about Linux partitions, so it can not spread, but if it is running from a partition which Windoze knows about, then it could.

[PJJ]

Thank you for your input.

Linux/Linspire is running on its own hard drive. I have eliminated MS W2K completely from this machine except for a few data files that I need to access from time to time.
I have an entirely separate computer for MS since I still need to use Quickbooks.

The swap file is running in a partition Linspire created during installation. Size: 1 Gig.

I take it from your reply that I could just erase the swap file and have a new one built. Attempted to do something similar by renaming the swap file. That did not work.

I am also concluding from your reply that I could pass on the worm to MS Windows machine that interact with my Linux system via e-mail. Correct?

If yes, I will just nuke the swap file.

[PJJ]

Sorry, did not answer all of your questions. Swap file is on the 'exclusively' Linux partition.
Data files are on a separate hard drive in Fat32 format. Linux is ReiserFs, I believe.

[Kemasa]

In most cases, it is not possible to accidentally pass on the virus from Linux to Windoze. The executables will not run and so you pass it on you would have to forward the affected file.

Personally, it does not seem like sometime to worry about. I am not sure of why it would think that your swap file had a virus, but perhaps there is some data left in there what was not over-written.

[PJJ]

Thanks again for the information and advice.
I will do as you suggested - and slepp better.

Happy New Year!