Can I get infected by playing video files?

I download video files a lot, small video files, around 2-8MB in size, WMV format and MPEG format and AVI format and so on.

Can they have an infection and playing them in VLC or Media Player, can it infect my Vista system?

 

Malware can pretty much hide in anything. So, yeah. I'd say so.

If you have a music folder you can make it low integrity. Videos and music should run fine with LI but malware won't.

 

Playing malicious music and video files tries to have Media players retrieve and install codecs, if your Media player is configured to allow connection, or your security setup allows it, you could become infected.

 

How can I make a music folder with low integrity?

And what's the solution? How can I protect myself and play video files?

 

LI (low integrity) - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb625960.aspx

 

Enter the path of the folder you want to set to low integrity. This command will make the folder and its contents all low integrity. This way, if malware is hiding in the files, it will only be able to access other low integrity areas.

EDIT: An important note... integrity carries from one folder to another. That means if I drag a low integrity file to a medium integrity area, that file is still low integrity. BUT if I copy that low integrity file and paste it in a medium integrity area it inherits the medium integrity.

 

Too complicated for me.

Is there an easier noob method to play video files safely, in case a video file I download and play is infected with a virus?

 

Too complicated? You literally copy and paste a code into your command prompt...

Or, yeah, you can use sandboxie if you've got that... though I always prefer to use OS level protection.

 

can I use Sandboxie and right click on the folder which contains the video files?

When I right click on the folder and choose "Run Sandboxed", it says, "SBIE1307 Program explorer.exe cannot access the internet due to restrictions". Can I hide this Sandboxie message..because it keeps popping up all the time when I am playing videos in the sandbox folder?

 

It sounds like you have start/run restriction in sandboxie settings.check sandboxie settings then post back.

 

When you are using OA, you can run all media player in RunSafer mode...the same all internet browser, file browser (e.x. PDF), email programs, instant messengers.
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/info/oa/KF-RunSafer.html
You can use Pretty Good Security by Sully also
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=244265

 

Right clicking every single video file and selecting to run in sandboxie seems the way to go yes. But it sure will be a pain to always do that with every file :*(

 

So then purchase Sandboxie so you can force-run your media player.

 

Or use BufferZone on your media player.

 

That is why I like DefenseWall. It automatically puts all your media players as untrusted. You don't have to do anything.