security concerns in dual-boot Linux, Windows system?

Question

I plan to install Windows Vista on my second hard drive partition, with Ubuntu Hardy remaining on the first partition. How likely is it that any security holes that may exist in Vista could allow malicious code to find its way to the Ubuntu partition or otherwise damage the system?

Answer 1

Darn near impossible (or at least impractical). The proportion of computer users who dual-boot Windows/Linux is so small that it's not worth anyone's time to write the code required to access a Linux partition from Vista and corrupt it. And it would have to be done intentionally; I'm sure it's safe to say that Windows will not have a major bug in the filesystem code that wreaks havoc on the HD with complete disregard for partition boundaries.

So what I'm saying, in less-than-eloquent terms, is not to worry about it. At all. (Unless you install a driver to access your Linux partition(s) from Windows, then, you might want to worry just a little bit.)

Answer 2

The major threat is here to install Windows after Linux. You might loose the boot-loader. Check RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows on Ubuntu's wiki.

Now, regarding malicious code, David answered very well.

Answer 3

If you want to prohibit access to your Linux data when running Windows in a dual-boot scenario, just use encrypted filesystems.