Questions tagged [virus]
A computer virus is a program or piece of code that tends to be malicious and is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes.
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If I try to open a PDF that is password protected inside an email, can I harm my PC [closed]
I have my own Office 365 tenant, and yesterday I got an email from the IT manager of an eligible chemical company in India, where the email contains a password-protected PDF. The email did not go to ...
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What is the best way to protect from polymorphic viruses?
Due to malware infections becoming more and more common, antivirus are a growing industry.
But it is common knowledge that polymorphic viruses (that rewrite their own code) are much harder to detect ...
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Could it theoretically be possible to get a virus installed through inficted router? [duplicate]
I was wondering if its possible to accidentally install malware and have it spread to your router/ethernet hub. Then reinstall windows and hard reset your drives so the virus has been removed from ...
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In theory, can you get hacked through watching streaming services?
I kind of get it that you can get hacked by loading up an image, as there can be code embedded in the file that may execute under certain circumstances, and the image itself won’t even look much ...
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Firmware Infections - how to detect, how to remove?
One often reads disturbing news about firmware infections. It is often said that such malware, due to its extensive permissions in the system, can manipulate practically everything, especially its own ...
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How to use one of Microsoft's new computers without leaking information?
Let's say I am interested in using one of Microsoft's new computers but I have concerns over the massive amount of data, personal behavior, and whatnot being consumed by the machine. Microsoft claims ...
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How to handle trojan executed on my laptop? [duplicate]
Unfortunately, I have executed an .exe file on my PC. After scanning the file I understood that it is a trojan and after checking its behaviour using VirusTotal I understood that it left many files on ...
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Random Requests Trying To Download Virus On Server?
So, I was hosting my website on fastapi, and then I saw this 2 requests on my server.
I found that there was link, that was linking to file named "shk" on random ip adresses. I tried to ...
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Backdoor:PHP/Webshell.O virus detected in an uploaded image file. Should I be worried? How can I prevent it?
I have a site which allows users to upload images. One uploaded file was recently detected by antivirus software (uploads aren't scanned, this was a system wide scan after)
Upon upload, I check the ...
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If my old device is infected, can my new device get viruses from my social media accounts?
Is it okay to log in my social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) from my old phone that I believe is infected with viruses to my new phone? Can virus transfer because of that?
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I accessed WhatsApp Web on a computer with a virus
"The following happens: I downloaded WhatsApp on my phone, which had a backup linked to my email. I accessed WhatsApp Web on a computer with a virus, logged out from there, reset my phone to ...
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Can my phone got infected if visit my mail inbox without opening any mail attachments?
I've found some articles saying some viruses/malware can attack your device by just opening an email without downloading or opening any attachments.
Is this true?
If yes, how risky for ordinary mail ...
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Is my home network infected? [duplicate]
Today, my family brought me a quite old laptop (it had Windows 7 Enterprise from around 2009). When I tried to turn it on, it was already complicated because I got a black screen with options, but the ...
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Is it possible to infect a monitor via HDMI plus Ethernet [duplicate]
I caught a virus because of an exe file I downloaded to my computer last week. I am replacing my modem, graphics card, motherboard, processor, ssd and ram components with new ones. What are the ...
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Streamer Virus on offline network [closed]
I have an offline network with 200 users. and routers, switches, 4 esxi servers and 1 netapp rack.
After about a year, my team found out that we have a virus in the network called streamer.exe that ...
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Can double-clicking an infected .xlsx file infect me if it crashed?
I downloaded an Excel (.xlsx) file from the internet.
Then I tried to open it by double-clicking on it.
But it suddenly crashed.
Could this mean it could've contained a virus or malware?
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Is an antivirus needed for linux home usage when there is exchange of files with other OS e.g. Windows?
I was under the impression that an antivirus for Linux makes sense only for installing in business computers. Checking Norton/BitDefender/Karpesky I don't see any Linux option for the first or any non ...
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How malware triggers without user running an executable?
It is known that downloading a file without actually executing it can be a security vulnerability, if the operating system does something which is not known by the user. See here for some good answers....
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How many parts of an average laptop can be compromised? and how to confirm they are not?
The majority of virus/malware is stored and persists on the hard drive, Therefore by formatting the hard drive or re-installing the operating system, the virus is removed.
However, the average laptop ...
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Can I use a program with a virus safely after I quarantine its virus?
I used to use a program for a long time, but then I found out the program (allegedly) had a virus so I went into Programs and deleted all of its files (without an antivirus).
But I really like that ...
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why did this spybot installer install opera without my consent? [closed]
link to questionable installer
this is the legitimate page to download spybot by the way (the manufacturer's website provides 3 links and i chose this one)
upon installing it opera was automatically ...
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WordPress site hacked [closed]
We got hacked.
Our setup:
DigitalOcean VPS, Apache, multiple domains & WP websites, Elementor Pro, hopefully safe plugins.
Known facts:
It's phishing.
The virus infects all the websites on our ...
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Can an earpiece transfer virus from one phone to another? [duplicate]
I gave a friend my earpiece and her phone had audio issues prior to that, I took it back and connected it to my phone and ever since I did, my audio stopped working. Now if I try to do anything that ...
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Anything I can do to combat malicious domains?
On Facebook, malware is currently trying to spread itself using the domain googlediver (dot) com, one sample of a malicious url is https://googlediver (dot) com/list-of-traveling-staff , and I believe ...
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Risk of spyware with proprietary firmware packages on Linux, even after removing them?
When I installed Debian 12 LXQt ISO with the graphical install, it installed many proprietary firmware packages that were not needed and without my consent.
Is it possible that proprietary firmware ...
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Reaper distributed patch dissemination design
Academic literature describes a method for distributing benevolent patches "in which every newly patched node forwards the patches to some or all of its neighbors according to a well-designed ...
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Is it possible for a Virus to "leave" the Windows Sandbox (VM) and infect the host system?
Im using Windows 11 Pro. It has a feature called "Windows Sandbox", which is basically a virtual machine.
If im getting a Virus inside of this sandbox, is it possible for that Virus to ...
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Could the Brain virus technically prevent software piracy?
The Brain virus is an early virus targeting the IBM PC / MS DOS platform.
Sometimes, it is claimed that one of the virus' purpose was to prevent the copying of some software that the virus was ...
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Downloaded a .scr file (didn't click), will it harm my computer?
I've downloaded a .rar file and extracted it. I have seen that there is a file with extension .scr and in a few seconds, my Windows Defender warned me that a threat had been found. So I just deleted ...
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I'm receiving text messages that my family didn't send
Lately I've been receiving text messages from family members that they did not send. All 4 family members and I are a part of the SMS group where we send and receive messages related to our family.
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Can virus survive macOS Recovery?
In what scenarios would a MacOS virus/malware/rootkit/etc (I use those terms to englobe all types of undesirable or malicious software or code) resist a format of the hard drive in MacOS recovery?
I ...
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Will using a hard drive with the MBR virus cause the main system to be infected?
If I have an old hard drive and assume it has an MBR virus.
If I install it on my computer using a SATA cable as the D drive to store data, will my system drive (C drive) be affected by the MBR virus?
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How to decrypt LockBit encrypted files
I've got an emergency on my PC. I remotely connected to it using Remote Desktop Connection a couple of days ago and I worked on my PC for a while and logged off. Later, when I went to log back on, I ...
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Accidently opened a phishing email .docx attachment on my iPhone, should I worry?
Two days ago, I received an email saying as object "March rent" in French. It says time to pay my rent for the month of March, and got the email March 1st... I thought this was my landlord ...
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PC to iOS, USB storage Malware?
I have a laptop, with Windows 7, no internet (with the wifi adapter physically removed). I want to use that machine for stuff like old abandonware, and don’t want to risk any type of malware or virus ...
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I caught myself in the middle of a phishing scam
I got caught up in a phishing scam where I conducted an automated interview with emails that appeared legitimate from real people within my college.
I did respond to multiple emails and the only ...
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Chance of virus/malware and non-executable files
I’ve seen this question being asked so many times, but I still have questions.
I know that to execute malicious code from non-executable files such as videos (mp4), audios (mp3) and documents (pdf), ...
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Using a program that likely has a trojan horse? [closed]
OP wants to back up his Blu-ray/4K collection to a HDD.
OP suspects that a very popular program that makes MKVs is actually a trojan horse that infects host computer's USB drives, which can later be ...
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I think I have a cryptomining virus, vmmem [closed]
My computer (Win10) was running slow and hot, and I noticed that a process called vmmem was using 85-99% of my CPU. I became concerned when I tried to shut down the process from Task Manager, and it ...
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If I disable CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in UEFI settings, will it protect me from malware that infected MBR boot sector?
As far as I understand, when in CSM mode, UEFI boots using MBR boot sector (from internal hard drive, external USB Flash drive, etc). And when in non-CSM mode, UEFI ignores whole existence of MBR boot ...
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Is it possible for media files (mp3,mp4) contain malware [duplicate]
I would like to know the technique and if it’s possible in the first one place, not activating the media player the file it self
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Can flash drive infect Android and then the Android infect Windows PC?
I found a flash drive outside my home. Thinking one of my neighbors might have dropped it and wanting to return to them (but still wanting to be cautious), I (stupidly) plugged it into an old Android ...
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I clicked what looked like an Amazon email, but it (maybe) was from an Amazon affiliate. Ended up at Amazon.com anyway. Can I safely investigate? [duplicate]
In a case of clicking too fast, I clicked on a picture that looked like it was from Amazon. However this was not the case. I did end up at Amazon, but I'm aware that other things could've taken place ...
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Where can I find the launcher for this virus that uses Powershell?
On my Windows 10 PC after about 30 minutes of being turned on I always get a powershell window that immediately hides and consumes a lot of RAM.
So I went to the powershell directory:
"C:\Windows\...
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Have I been attacked?
This may be a dumb issue, but I have no other way to find out. At some point I was sent a facebook message from someone with a name of a person I knew, who wrote something along the lines "haha I ...
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How dangerous is it to visit a website?
I visited theannoyingsite (not hyperlinked because it is a nightmare)
It tells you to press space for three seconds, and then it unleashes hell upon your senses. Loud noises, bouncing windows, ...
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Is it enough to verify the hash to ensure file is virus free?
I download all kinds of stuff from shady places. But I want to be sure there are no nasty viruses in these files. Is it enough if I just check the hash?
For example, when I go https://www.virustotal....
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How to tell if an image has a virus? [duplicate]
I received (and opened) an image from Whatsapp. How can I know if this image contains a virus (spyware)?
Is it possible to send photos containing virus using Whatsapp Mod (unofficial versions of ...
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What does it mean when Google anti-virus engine reports "Detected"?
I need to convert a ton of directories of JPEGs into PDFs or EPUBs.
So I downloaded this: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/josch/img2pdf/build/artifacts
Being scared that it might be malware, as any ...
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Are browser extensions inherently unsafe?
If we're doing sensitive things in the browser, like logging into cryptocurrency exchanges, is it too risky to have any browser extensions, for fear that there's a virus or something in them?
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