Wine Security Disclosure

[Dan Kegel]

dmitry wrote:
>> if we are so compatible that we can run virii and spyware,
>> then we need to document it ... otherwise there will be many people
>> disappointed by unrealistic expectations.
>
> Again, I don't see how Wine developers could help with that,
> we are developers, not a health care department.

We can help in several ways:

1) at the top of our documentation, we can say

 "Warning: Wine can run Windows viruses and malware.
  Always practice safe computing -
  never run anything from somebody you don't trust,
  and never run any Windows app you haven't scanned
  for viruses."

2) we can at least document how to use clamav with wine,
  or link to clamav and its doc, e.g.
  http://www.clamav.net/
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ClamAV

3) we can warn on startup if we detect that clamav
  is not present.

4) we can try to make it easy to use free virus scanners
  with wine.  Some ideas:
  http://www.burghardt.pl/2007/11/wine-with-on-access-clamav-scanning/
  http://www.christoph-probst.com/soc2006/wine/

It's not enough to provide Wine and throw up our hands
saying "It's up to users to protect their systems"
because our users are at worst quite literally clueless,
and at best too busy to want to bother with virus issues.
If we can guide them or ease their way, we should.
- Dan