Are Skype drive-by attacks theoretically possible?

Question

Long story short, I was on my iPhone when this Skype account tried to send me a "picture" but before it could download (I saw what looked like a downloading bar) I left the message and blocked the user.

Unfortunately, I was also logged into Skype with Windows 8.1 (the crappy version that takes up the whole screen all the time) and I opened the window to log out before anything could be done.

However, I can't find the file directory that Skype saves files in (I read that it stores it in the Documents folder?) but I haven't used Skype for file transfers yet so the directory might not have been created. Or the malware deleted it to cover its tracks?

Anyway, Wireshark seems to show some packets in red that go to Amazon AWS which I hear is where a lot of hackers use to carry out their hacks.

So do you think my computer has been compromised or are there legitimate websites that use Amazon AWS IP addresses?

Answer 1

Although it is certainly theoretically possible that your system could be compromised by vulnerabilities in Skype and/or Windows 8, there's no indication that your system was cracked in this case. It could have been a hacking attempt, or it could have been ordinary skype spam. I'd suggest you set Skype to prevent contacts or at least file transfers from non-contacts.

Amazon AWS is for the most part legit, a cracker would have to be pretty stupid to open an AWS account in their own name and be tracked. Besides, why pay for it when you can crack an insecure server and use it for free? AWS, like the rest of the servers out there is only as secure as the people maintaining it, if malicious traffic was coming from AWS it was most likely coming from a compromised legitimate site.