Free Music Online

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Select, you shouldn't be too scared of "getting a virus." The worst that can happen is that your virus scan fails and you have to reinstall windows and transfer all of your files back over. Not that big of a deal...

Actually, the (most plausible) worst that can happen is you get a rootkit installed on your machine that subverts your virus scanner so you never actually know you've been hacked. Then random criminal elements use your machine as a jumping off point for hacking attempts against high profile targets such as the DoD, NSA, White House or Church of Scientology. Then men in black come in with a warrant, ask you all sorts of really tough questions and take your computer away as material evidence of the crime without your ever seeing it again or even having a chance to get anything from it.

Yes - I'm serious. That can and does happen.

Dd

A virus is executable code, and if you don't execute it, the virus is just a file on your hard drive. So just downloading something is pretty safe until you run it, and that gives your AV software time to scan it. Unless it's something brand new that your AV software misses (or your definitions are old), then there's a pretty slim chance your machine will be compromised.

I mostly just download mp3 files, which have no way that I know of to infect your system.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Or if you have good AV software it catches it while you're downloading it.

[Ddrak]

Select, you shouldn't be too scared of "getting a virus." The worst that can happen is that your virus scan fails and you have to reinstall windows and transfer all of your files back over. Not that big of a deal...

Actually, the (most plausible) worst that can happen is you get a rootkit installed on your machine that subverts your virus scanner so you never actually know you've been hacked. Then random criminal elements use your machine as a jumping off point for hacking attempts against high profile targets such as the DoD, NSA, White House or Church of Scientology. Then men in black come in with a warrant, ask you all sorts of really tough questions and take your computer away as material evidence of the crime without your ever seeing it again or even having a chance to get anything from it.

Yes - I'm serious. That can and does happen.

Dd

A virus is executable code, and if you don't execute it, the virus is just a file on your hard drive. So just downloading something is pretty safe until you run it, and that gives your AV software time to scan it. Unless it's something brand new that your AV software misses (or your definitions are old), then there's a pretty slim chance your machine will be compromised.

I mostly just download mp3 files, which have no way that I know of to infect your system.

Like I said - I was posting the worst that could happen, and you can't deny it's a worst-case scenario because even you admit a "slim chance".

There's lots of holes in the theory too:

- AV scanners are necessarily reactive, not proactive. A good rootkit can infect your system and disable your AV scanner without your even knowing, especially given that P2P and other darknets are the typical sites for introduction of new malware.
- The bittorrent (or whatever P2P) software you use to download could become compromised. After all, they're just hacked together with very little serious effort done on secure programming and testing.
- The MP3 playing software could have a bug that can be compromised by a carefully crafted MP3 file (much as the bug in explorer allowed viewing certain JPG files to run arbitrary executable code).
- A bug in your web browser is exploited while you're surfing the download sites. After all - the people who run the sites are hardly models of good citizens.

Yes, all slim chances, but Tax was saying the "worst case" was reformatting. Reformatting is a "best case" if your system gets infected, not a worst case.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

You could make most of those arguments about visiting just about any site, or playing just about any media file.

- I'm not sure I agree about mp3's infected with malware payloads compromising a system. Have any linkages? I've never seen or heard specifically a case where it's an mp3 file, although I have seen where JPG's can use a buffer overflow exploit.

- I use the azereus (sp?) BT client, and have for a few years. Sure it's possible for it to become compromised, but I'm inclined to think that the news of it would spread pretty quick. You could also make the argument that *any* software program could become compromised.

- Again, it's possible for a web site to compromise your system via a browser exploit, but I would put lower odds on a site like pirate bay or mininova.org because of the high traffic / high visibility of those sites. Word would get out pretty quick. I would put much higher odds on social networking and related sites, where I see systems being compromised every day, and the users clueless to how they picked up the infection.

- AV scanners are no substitute for paying attention to what you're doing on the intraweb thingy, but they are a layer of defense, and are useful. If you download something nasty, more than likely any good AV program will catch it.

Just playing devil's advocate here and pointing out that the web can be a nasty place no matter where you surf of what you download. Downloading MP3's via BT is pretty safe in the general scheme of things in my experience, and certainly much safer than other methods / networks.

[Ddrak]

Agreed on all points. It's only a very slim chance, isn't specific to downloading and MP3s are far lower risk than games or other executables.

Dd