Rapidshare security ?

A friend of mine downloads these .rar files from rapidshare and unzips them with Winrar. I think most are flv or wmp video formats. Anyway, is it expected that most antivirus programs can scan these files before they are unzipped? Does scanning ability depend on which compression tool is used?

Also, are there any detection test results for scanning these types of files available which examine the detection ability of several antivirus programs? I could not find any off hand.

Thanks

 

Ahum (Yes).

Some can scan archives before they are extracted , some cannot . Some are by default made NOT to scan the archives before they are extracted because if the archive is too big this will slow down the machine .

Since everything inside the archive is absolutely not dangerous until extracted and then executed , the only important scan is to scan the extracted files after they are extracted from the archive and then run (on-access scan).

What do you mean ? The compression tool used to create the archive or the compression tool used to unpack it ? Or ... ?

I am not aware of such . scanning what is inside an archive is pointless because it is not dangerous until files from inside are extracted/run

 

a lot of av can and do check such archive on the fly and choke on it depending on size. All AVs will scan any file once expanded from the archive though

 

Hi there,

I would advise against downloading files from that web site. That site has a disclaimer where they say they can't be held responsible if you get a virus from a file you download there because those files are put there by users worldwide and you don't know for sure if they are whether malicious or not.

A fiend of mine downloaded a WinRar crack [no serial numbers needed to activate it] form RapidShare. He opened the file using a legal trial or WinZip and when he scanned it with his AV nothing malicious came up but when he submitted the file to VirusTotal 16 virus engines out of 40 flagged it as malicious [a Trojan Horse]; among those who flagged it malicious at VT were Symantec, McAfee [with Artemis], BitDefender, etc. but not ESET, Kaspersky or even Avira. [He submitted it to ESET, however]

So, that's just an example. What else could be lurking out there?

I hate so called “free software” offered on those site like RapidShare because I know for sure that in life nothing comes for free. Everything has a price and, when you look to get free software/songs/movies you might end up with your identity stolen by one of those hackers who plant malicious software on those web sites.

Regards,

Carlos

 

The compression tool used to unpack it. Also is there a list of av programs that shows which scan archives and which do not? Or is it better to just check the specs of each av to see if it will scan archives?

 

I don't know of any list that shows which av programs scan archives. You're better off checking the program specs.

 

ssj, as we have found out, things dont react the same in a sandbox as they would actually on the system

 

A small one is the full report of the VB test (VB100% award) but it is very small.

AFAIK , most AVs can scan all most popular archive types .