Stupid question but is it possible to get a virus from an MKV file that is less than 24 hours old. I was streamed using VLC version 3.0.20 form the repose on Linux.
You’re probably fine it’s extremely unlikely. Dont trust emails that say they recorded you wanking its a scam
Send them back a clip of you wanking to their email.
theoretically… but no.
Every once in a while security researchers would discover sophisticated exploits that would allow malwares to take over your computer via multimedia files, but those are actually rarely exploited in the wild by run off the mill malwares.
Unless you’re an important person being targeted by hackers and three letter agencies, your biggest source of threat is running infected programs from untrusted sources, e.g. cracks downloaded from random torrents or warez sites, shady sites serving ads that trick you to run some executables, etc.
I really hate to be “that person”, but..........it’s “run of the mill”, not “run off the mill”, friend.
It’s a term from the late 1800s that refers to “manufactured goods not graded or sorted for quality—that is, a mill’s products before they’ve been separated according to what will sell for how much.” (Source for quote: https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/where-does-run-of-the-mill-come-from)
Seriously, I’m not trying to be a grammar nazi here. Unless of course that was just autocorrect being a dick, in which case I’ll go walk off a cliff now… :/
Thank you for the correction!
Of course. :) I love learning about etymology and stuff, but I understand language is an evolving phenomenon so I try not to be a dick. Lol, hopefully, I succeeded.
I thought I was wrong about the phrase for a minute
That’s really interesting. Thanks :)
Of course. :)
Wild that people have ESCAPED VMs… but yeah that’s not happening on my boring ass’s computer
Just make sure the file doesn’t have a double extension. That can trick people into running a .exe when the file extension is hidden. That’s really only a problem on windows though.
Your wife is not going to believe it bud.
if you really only played it and it didn’t abuse some zero day in vlc (extremely unlikely), the there’s basically zero chance you could have activated a virus.
But it’s definitely possible to ship a virus embedded in a playable mkv file, but something else would have to extract it first, for it to do anything
There’s imho no stupid questions regarding personal cyber-security. There are only things we don’t know yet.
Depends what you play it through TBH. If a program has access to your memory, then yes. Naturally it’s a nuanced answer and unless you are a security expert that knows exactly how memory is allocated and how elevated privileges work, not to mention all the little bugs, etc. in your system, then the answer is yes. You aren’t really safe from anything that hits your hard drive.
Not really, but you can get a virus from movie.mkv.exe, which will probably show up in windows as “movie.mkv” but will actually run a program.
That being said, I’ve never actually seen this in the wild and it was mainly talked about in the mp3 era.
I’ve seen many a ROM be SuperMarioBros3.exe just straight up, but never .nes.exe so idk if that counts.
The 3DS got rooted by playing a music file. Anything can happen homie.
It’s possible to get a virus from any data that enters your computer full stop.
Likelyhood wise: that virus on the MKV will have to attack the operating system preview system (which means you fucked all the way up to personal nation state attention), or attack the video player (which is a lot more likelier, they discover theoretical exploits all the time).
You’re talking about streaming with VLC? Was it a trusted source? Cause otherwise the FBI or script kiddie has probably fucked you up.
Definitely no, viruses need 48-72 hours of incubation before the .mkv host becomes contagious. If the file is <24 hours old, I’d look for another source.
If you’re worried your computer might be infected, you should consider swapping your case LEDs with UV lights to purify your system.
Fucking genius 🤣🤣
This made my day 😁
Absolutely yes. Even if it is not disguised executable.
It could contain an exploit which targets the video player you are opening it with.
I’m gonna go with unlikely.
In theory, you could make a fake executable with the mkv file extension on a unix system, by making it a shell script with a bunch of garbage data at the end, marking it executable, and distributing it with a tarball. But the chances someone will do that is insanely low.
Also it has caveats:
- It’d rely on your double clicking it, and having your file manager not warning you about it.
- Video players wouldn’t run the shell script code, if it’d run the file at all.
