Virus in video

[zoobie]

Well, how about that?
I just d/l'ed a video from a site linked to mine and before it was finished, it had gottten past my blocker and inserted a virus and restarted my box to save it
You learn something new every day...I hope
Now I have to make a little image for my sites....
Video Safe Site
...or somesuch

PS - Looks like little bobby isn't upstairs playing pacman after all
If I ever get my hands on the little sucker...

[aedipuss]

gives a whole new meaning to the term viral video... what format was it in, wmv, i presume?

[zoobie]

.flv I think...not going back

[oldandinthe way]

Why have you concluded this virus came from the video?

Why have you concluded it is a virus?

What AV software were you running?

Was it up to date?

What site was the source?

[Ai Haibara]

I've seen regular sites have problems because somewhere down the line, someone hacked the ad-banner server to push ads with code to install malware/viruses/spyware. I'm not saying the site in this case can't be at fault, but it's probably something in the webpage or ad banner code that was causing problems, not the video itself.

I believe there IS something in the ASF/WMA/WMV specs to trigger a website load, though, and someone could theoretically cause a webpage with intent to install malware to load.

[aedipuss]

the only virus "video" anyone has found yet is just trickery not actual virus in the video. they name the loader something like "paris_does_XXX.avi.exe" and depend on those folks who haven't changed the file option "hide known file extensions" to off. then the mark double clicks the "video" file expecting porn and end up getting a surprise instead. mostly a backdoor trojan is making the rounds this way right now.

zoobie i would guess your's was more likely what oldie and ali think. a drive by site/banner install. unless you really did double click a "video" file download.

[zoobie]

I clicked the performer's video and it was d/l'ing when my box restarted...not a good sign
the shutdown loop and errors it threw point to a virus documented online
I was running free antiVir which was out of date when they went paid in Dec

I researched the web with the errors it threw (system shutdown loop) and found a rash of others that didn't have any luck removing the virus either

spent 2 days trying to avoid reformatting my C drive trying such software as A squared, AVG, cureit, stinger, superantispyware, microsoft's own malicious virus remover...even repaired XPP...all to no avail

I don't dare post the addy as some fool may click on it...

I didn't really care that much because I have backed up all important work on another drive...just more of a challenge to see if something would remove it...and an inconvenience

at least I've gotten some good free anti-virus programs now

but I see your point...I'd have to look at the source code to actually determine...but have learned since that a virus can actually be inserted into a video

it was kinda funny...but as I was doing a quick reformat, the tv news was saying to be absolutely sure, you should wipe your HDD clean and start with a fresh OS install every 6 months....

[aedipuss]

zoob just running av software isn't enough even if you have a firewall running. the truly scary stuff slides right by them online. get some protection from unwanted installs and malware. the best free one i've found is a little used microsoft product called windows defender. that along with avg free has been running on one of the computers here for a year and a half infection free. it's as good as the paid subscription norton av as am running on the other comps here.

[zookeeper525]

a great free firewall is comodo, great i havent had any trouble using it with BitDefender 2008 and Spybot - Search & Destroy and i have not seen a virus in about 3 months lol

that they pick up i mean

[thecoalman]

but I see your point...I'd have to look at the source code to actually determine...but have learned since that a virus can actually be inserted into a video

You got a link to that information. The only virus's that I've heard of in data files like video, images or audio are ones that have exploited meta tag info. I know there was a few MS products and the exif module in PHP was vulnerable to this for images but that was a few years ago. There was a lot of if's for this to work. In other words it was a long shot and MS patched it long before anything happened. I only remeber reading about the possibility, never reading about people getting infected.

[NightFire]

it was kinda funny...but as I was doing a quick reformat, the tv news was saying to be absolutely sure, you should wipe your HDD clean and start with a fresh OS install every 6 months....

I would kill myself if I had to do that. I usually only do re-installs about every 3 - 4 years. Usually because of my own stupidity which is the way I break most things.

[theewizard]

i've got avg and zone alarm, but I also run 'spybot search & destroy' and I have the ' tea timer' option ON

anything that wants to touch the registry, gets flagged and i have to give permission,

that is a major help in stopping infectious malware

yes it means when i do a real install, and have to set here and click the button,i can't get up and walk away, but it stops 'dead in the tracks' anything that wants to write to registry so it can run on startup or hide for re-install