[CentOS] OT: Possible for Malware against Windows boxes to attack Firefox on Linux?

[JohnS]

On Thu, 2009-04-16 at 21:14 -0700, Michael A. Peters wrote:
> Lanny Marcus wrote:
> > My belief is that this is not possible, but there are many extremely
> > knowledgeable people participating on this list and I would like to
> > know if it is in fact possible. I am running CentOS 5.3 (32 bit) fully
> > updated. Browser is Mozilla Firefox v.3.0.7.
> > 
> > I believe both times this happened, once yesterday and once today, I
> > was surfing on the web site of my favorite singer/musical group; or in
> > the forum, which is a highly restricted area. Today when it happened,
> > I believe I was looking at a video coming from YouTube.com
> > 
> > I contacted the webmaster, someone I communicate with frequently,
> > thinking that something on one or more of his web pages is infected,
> > but he wrote back, thinking that my box (dual boot MS Windows XP and
> > CentOS on the same hard drive) is infected by this malware and that
> > his web site is clean. Below is part of the description he sent me in
> > an email. I have seen the pop ups, a request to install
> > Install-2006-60.exe which I declined...., etc. Comes from
> > <http://antispywarepcscanner.com>  Is there any way the Firefox web
> > browser could have been corrupted by this, while using CentOS Linux?
> >  TIA!  Lanny
> 
> My experience is that when browsing on any OS and you come across an 
> error message stating that your computer is infected and you need to 
> install such and such software, the web site I was visiting has an XSS 
> exploit that was taken advantage of to try and get you to manually 
> install a piece of malware.
> 
> Install the FireFox extension "noscript" and be very careful about what 
> domains you authorize scripting from.
> 
> The fact that an XSS attack was able to give you a phony message means 
> the same site could have XSS that reads your cookie and steals your 
> session ID.
> 
> Noscript reduces the odds of such attacks being succesful.
---
If it makes you feel any safer I will go there and down load it on my
CentOS Desktop! BUT! If your running WINE Then that is another storie I
would NOT.

JohnStanley