Can a virus be transmitted in a picture?

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All Comments on: Can a virus be transmitted in a picture?

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Bill Holland
November 4, 2008 9:33 AM

Thank you, Leo!
I teach intro to computer science at a local junior college. You wouldn't believe how much information I get from your columns to pass on to my students. I certainly do appreciate it.

Catmoves
November 4, 2008 12:21 PM

Leo, have a look at this: http://www.switched.com/2008/11/03/sneaky-trojan-horse-swipes-data-on-500-000-bank-accounts/?icid=200100397x1212392818x1200794898
It's not new, but how many get caught and how do you know if you are going to a dangerous site? With IE7 I use a free program named CallingID. It's from Microsoft and although slow sometimes, warns about known sites one doesnt' need to visit.
Haven't seen an equivalent for other browsers, though.

grace
November 5, 2008 8:07 AM

the article was helpful but not so explanatory. how do i know a 'picture that is not a picture?'. and if i were the guy who asked the question, how do i get rid of the virus? do i have to reformat my system?

Good question. If the file is already on your machine you could, of course, run a virus scan to hopefully get rid of it. The problem is that these are most often used on malicious websites where you don't have a chance to "look before you leap". The best advice is simply to keep your machine up-to-date with Windows patches, since it's unpatched machines that these things take advantage of, and stay away from questionable web sites. This article may help on what to do when you're infected, regardless of the cause: My computer's infected with a virus, how do I clean it up?

- Leo
06-Nov-2008

matt
November 10, 2008 8:54 PM

This article helps with my comprehension. Thanks a lot!!!

Carrie Brightman
February 18, 2009 9:33 AM

Hi,

I definitely have a worm on a CDR with some very valuable pictures on it.

What do I do now?

Thanks,

Carrie

Disable autorun, copy the contents of your CD to your hard disk, run anti-virus scans (probably multiple, definitely making sure their databases are up to date), and then burn a new CD of the images.

- Leo
19-Feb-2009

Mark
April 30, 2009 4:00 AM

In an explorer window go to Tools->Folder options->view and un-check "hide extensions for known file types" option. This is one of the most dangerous defaults settings of all time.

It's possible to name an executable file as for example picture.jpg.exe and if the extension is hidden you might be fooled into thinking you have a picture file. If you have a file with a double extension where the final extension is executable odds are high its a virus.

Also beware of screen saver files .scr. The name means screen saver but your computer handles it exactly the same as an .exe file.

Al
December 24, 2012 11:53 AM

ANY file can contain a virus, even picture files. An infected picture file would exploit a known weakness in your file viewer (the application that opens the infected file) to cause the viewer to execute malicious code stored in the picture. Software manufacturers are well aware of this and have taken steps to remove those weaknesses in mature applications.

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.