Malware on Wine review

[Chris Robinson]

On Wednesday 25 February 2009 8:38:15 am King InuYasha wrote:
> Now that Nautilus has the desktop file requiring execute bit, I have a
> question for all of you to consider. Do JAR files require the +x bit to
> load them, or are they treated like associated files and run through the
> interpreter? Really, Windows apps on Linux is basically the same situation
> as Java applications run through the bytecode interpreter.

Not really. When Java byte code is run through an interpreter, the program is 
implicitly bound by what the JRE allows. If the JRE does not allow you to 
access feature X, the program can't access feature X in any way (barring 
fixable bugs, of course). The JRE is in control of the program.

A program loaded with Wine, by contrast, can do anything a normal program can. 
All Wine does is set up an initial environment Windows apps expect, loads the 
program into memory, then sets it off to run on its own. Wine cannot disallow 
a program from accessing feature X if it wants to. The program is in control 
of Wine.