Can be Linux be infected with a PDF file?

General Linux Question
1

Hello Friends

According with your experience, considering:

  • If a PDF file is infected by a virus/malware/trojan etc and if it is opened in Linux

Question

  • Can be Linux be infected with a PDF file?

Yes, I know that kind of programs are designed to attack Windows but I want to know the probability for Linux

Thanks in advance

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2

I have never seen a virus on any linux system in my 15 years of using and supporting linux systems. As the operating systems are totally different I would say no chance of transfer from one to another.

Is a good starting point to check a file.

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According to my searches, the theoretical answer may be yes.
PDF’s theoretically can contain java scripts.
And if there is a malicious one, the possibility of infecting depends on wether it is executed…
AFAIK Atril doesn’t run embedded javascripts, I beleive the same goes to Evince.
(Double check please to be sure!).
I’m not sure about Okular in KDE, as it seemed to have js support.
I think pdf viewer inside a browser has the attack surface, so a browser may get infected even in Linux.
I hate pdf’s displayed by browser, so I disable it always, rather lik to download pdfs and read via Atril. Not because of security concerns, but I find Atril way much more comfortable for pdf reading than Chromiums pdf reader :wink:

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I thought browsers used whatever pdf reader you had installed… looks like I was misled there.? Maybe you can set the browser to use an external reader. ?

I suppose , if one had the browser in firejail, reading a pdf would be safe?

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I have Chromium as default browser, as I like its better performance ove Firefox.
I have set it to “download pdfs” instead of “open pdfs in Chromium”.
So when I click on a link to pdf, it downloads and saves, and that wii be opened by XReader (Cinnamon equivalent of Atril/Evince) on my computer.
That’s more “natural” to me than showing a pdf in a browser tab.

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Think this was your original question ?

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It also makes a lot of sense for a browser team to use an existing pdf reader rather than attempt to write their own reader.

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