ronknights opened this issue on Oct 31, 2001 ยท 41 posts
soulhuntre posted Sat, 03 November 2001 at 10:36 AM
Yes, I am very aware of the story especially as it relates to computer security work. The issue about trojan's is they must be able to DELIVER their payload. A file ... no matter what it contains, that is being treated by the system as an MP3 file is simply not going to be able to deliver that payload. This is not being nit-picky. It is crucial that people understand what types of things are dangerous so they can spot it when someone is trying to convince them to do those things. I can have the most dangerous program around on my drive - if it is only ever played by "winamp" it simply cannot execute any code. it is harmless. But, if someone sends you a file called "hotsex.mp3" in email you had better make sure that really IS the filename before you execute it... because if it is "hotsex.mp3.vbs" you might be in trouble. Someone who feels they got a virtus from an MP3 file is missing the real cause of the infection .. and that means they are still vulnerable. I'm not trying to be a nerd here - but it is necessary in the same way a doctor has to correct the idea that you can get pregnant from kissing.