Virus Inside "Free" Software

[BoogiePop]

Hey Everyone, this if my first post at AntiOnline.

Uhm, anyways, I was wondering if enyone knew what kind of viruses people can attach to free software. I dont plan on downloading any "piracy" type free software, I just mean, software like Open Office and stuff. Thanks, and if anyone knows how to get rid of them too that would be nice. If I posted in the wrong section please say so and I will post it there and I you can delete this one. Thanks again!

[cheyenne1212]

People can attach anytype of virus to files they want. IF you donload off of Kazza make sure you have a virus scanner. I downloaded a program once from kazaa and it almost deleted my hard drive.

But I also donloaded office and it turned out to be ok ( I later bought it).

You just have to be careful when you download files off of the net.

[BoogiePop]

Alright thanks. But do they "attach" them to other files or do they just include the virus in the folder?

Also, can they attach tem to ISOs?

And is McAffe a good AV?

Thanks Again

[cheyenne1212]

it just depends usually. FOr instance if you downloading a windows movie file which would have and extension of .wmv they could replace the file with a virus name it a song like Garth Brooks.vb.wmv (I think thats how that works.) and then its a visual basic script file but looks like a windows movie file.

Now if you downloading a zip file that has several things in it they could hide the virus inside any of the folders. They could also have a script set up to where the first time you ran the program the virus would run.

As far as teh ISO's I'm not sure. They might be able to.

Yeah Mcaffe is a good virus scanner. I use Norton, some people use AVG, PC Cillin. It just depends on what you like.

[BoogiePop]

Alright Thanks Alot. Do you know of any plave where I can find more information on viruses in ISO's anyone?

[ZomBieMann77]

I dont know why they couldnt put a virus inside an iso. Most of us have heard about some company or another with a pissed off employee that has embeded a virus into the master copy of porduction disks. From what i understand all an iso is, its justa difrent way of "ziping" files into an image. Those iso's have to be compiled somehow and its very possible that if someone was creating an iso with malicious intent the could very well plant a virus inside of it. This i just kinda theroy and logic at this point. I dont have any concrete proof to back this up. But i look at it this way. If one person can make it another person can modify it.

[powertoad5000]

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplan...orials/4342/2/

Contains some information on using MD5 checksums to verify the integrity of files. This is one measure you can use to ensure that ISO's you download don't contain viruses/trojans etc.

Most places that have ISO's available for legitimate software (ie not warez) will provide an MD5 checksum for the file, which greatly reduces the chance of getting a virus (assuming the author did not place a virus/trojan in there purposely to begin with).