ok, a dumb question.

[rahulkothari]

Can playing an infected mp3 file or opening an infected image hurt my pc in any way ?

i am asking this coz, i download all kinds of multimedia files from our lan and scanning each for viruses is a tedious task.

... actually, i am lazy. :p

[pentachris]

The only way I think a media file could harm your computer is if the media player had a security hole in it and the media file was written to take advantage of it.

I think.

[Abbadon]

why don't you set up your virusscanner to scan all the files as they come in?

[mjc]

Basically, "infected" media files need another app to triggeer them, whether is a specially crafted to exploit a vulnerabilty in a particluar media player (a couple WMP holes spring to mind here....all buffer overflows: seen in the wildmaybe seen in the wild) or contains "extra" data that some script or other program strips and reconstructs as the malware (maybe seen in the wild).

The bigger danger, though, is media files that aren't...

I am currently ripping apart an IRC worm. The intial download is an mpg. But it isn't a movie, it is a script, which is allowed by the mpg file extension. The script, instead downloading the actual movie, which is what allowing a script to be named mpg is for, it downloads another file and runs it. This file is DDoS bot.....

The good thing is, AVG detects the initial download as a dropper and the second download as an IRC malware....

[rahulkothari]

The application (DC++ (http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/)) i use to download files, doesnt have any provision for automatic virus scanning. :(

i think, i should stop using WMP at once, and ya, ofcourse scan every dled file.

gtg, examsss are due on 15th of this month. :mad: