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Does installing wine pose a risk of virus infection? I'm afraid a powerful virus can bypass wine sandbox and gain access to root linux.

Thank you.

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You can execute native executables inside wine, so if the virus knows what to do with a native executable, and if you have write access to the executable, then it is possible.

Wine is not a sandbox, it is a compatibility layer. There is nothing preventing code from crossing back and forth other than a lack of programmers with the knowledge and desire.

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  • +1 for 'Wine is not a sandbox', it does make a POSIX system compatible with win32 apps, including viruses
    – Javier
    Apr 21, 2010 at 12:02
  • Check this out: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=72598. This guy installed some viruses and then posted what happened. That was way back in 2005, when Wine was nowhere near as good at running applications as it is today. I would suggest you assume Linux / UNIX with WINE is no more secure against viruses than Windows. Apr 21, 2010 at 16:04
  • “Wine is not a sandbox” is spot on.
    – Mo.
    Apr 21, 2010 at 16:16

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