Why is Linux more secure than windows
Why is Linux more secure than windows
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Yemi Odunade
1 answers
Yemi Odunade
1 answers
I watched the recorded DID session. AR mentioned linux is more secure than windows because of the shell. He also mentioned windows has its own shell. Please can you further clarify the answer as to why linux is more secure. I did not understand the explanation
I saw other online explanations such as in linux you need to change file permission to execute a program while in windows ".exe" files can be executed simply by double-clicking.
Answers (1)
PR Reddy
Best Answer 2 years ago
Yes, Linux is more secure by design itself. Below are some main focus points to consider that Linux is secured.
Everything is a File
By architecture Linux treats everything is a file; File, Directory, devices etc.. everything is treated as file in Linux, so its unlikely to get effected by viruses easily.
Permissions
Permissions are key major difference compare to the Windows systems. Linux has 'umask' value which decides the default permissions for the files and directories that are creating by the user and also 'umask' restrict granting default execute permissions for the files, so that users can not execute scripts by default.
Permissions can be fine tuned at each file or directory level so it allows to grant access to only authorized users.
Explicit execution permissions are required for the scripts to execute them, hence its more secure as users can validate what script it is and use cases while granting the execute permission to the scripts.
Software Installations
Remote users can get only Command Line Shell access to the server, hence users have to use only commands to administrate the server. Linux has Package Manager Tools like 'yum' to manage the software installations. Package Managers download the packages from trusted remote repositories which are marinating by the community or OS vendors itself.
Like in windows you can not download the software from internet and install them from browsers directly, so it avoids installation the malicious packages.
Updates
Security Patching is more important to fix the vulnerabilities identified in the old versions. As every application is managed to get the updates from repositories, package managers can easily get the latest updated and update the systems as per the scheduled configured on the system.
Frequent application updates makes system up-to-date and less chances that systems are vulnerable.