It does seem to be spreading. Red Hat has just issued a warning about a "phishing" exploit being sent to Linux users. It arrives as an email claiming to be a "Security Bulletin" urging people to go to Fedora-Redhat.com and download a Critical Patch. The patch is, of course, malware that attempts to invade and "use" your Linux system.

Apparently a fair number of people have been fooled. The disguise is pretty good, as Fedora is a "hobby" version of Red Hat. The real site is Fedora.RedHat.com (Not Fedora-RedHat.com).

A couple of real security patches have been recently put out for Linux, but aren't (yet) available for all kernal versions. The "holes" are rather difficult to exploit, and few attempts have been seen, so they're not considered especially "critical."

The "hijack" malware, that redirects your home page or imposes a new default search engine (and sometimes new search bar) appears to be "gaining momentum" and has recently been pretty high on the lists of "bothers." This is probably the kind of thing that this thread originated with. Much of this stuff incorporates rather invasive spyware, so it's pretty important - but often very difficult - to get it off your system. MOST of it can be avoided by following momma's rule: "DONT TALK TO STRANGERS!"

ANYTHING that "pops up" and "warns you" and "offers a free fix" is PROBABLY an offer to install SPYWARE.

If you don't know them, DON'T CLICK.

John