Can I get a virus by opening a *.ZIP file?

[Antoneo]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but Pccillin's House Call tells me that I have a virus in a zip file that I downloaded (using an automatic list grabber) from mIRC. I have not opened it yet but I assume that it was opened by mIRC (or maybe the list grabber itself) when I was searching through user's lists for a particular song.

The virus it claims I have is BKDR_DSNX.A and House Call states that it is non cleanable. Right next to the "infected" file name/directory in the program display is "*liste mp3.exe*"... I'm not sure what that means though.

I have just downloaded AVG from Grisoft and also performed a complete scan and came up with no viruse(manually scanned the directory as well).

Does anyone want to try scanning the file with Norton/McAfee?
I am paranoid as to whether or not I can get viruses from opening zip files.

 

[AnthraX101]

Simple answer: Yes.

Complex answer: Not realy.

A zip file is just a container for other files. What is actualy infected is one of the files inside the zip. Simply, it is imposible to get a virus from a zip file itself, just it's contents. If, on the other hand, it is a self extracting zip, then that is code to be executed just like any other, and could be infected.

Botom line: It probably has it. mIRC is constantly spreading viruses

Armani

 

[MrBond]

You cannot get a virus by opening a zip file. I suppose, if someone was dumb enough to unzip something to their root partition, and the ZIP file had been packaged so it'd copy virus files into the correct directories so they'd execute when the PC was rebooted or something, but the likelyhood of that is VERY slim. You can only get a virus by running a script file or an infected EXE. More then likely the file it found (liste mp3.exe) is the infected virus file.

 

[Antoneo]

Hmm... interesting that's what I thought. Now how can I see the correct file extension in Win2k? When I click properties on a file, I don't get to see what the file extension is. Is the command prompt the only way (dir/w)?

EDIT: By the way, uhhh virus scanner do go through the contents of the zip file itself yes?

 

[AnthraX101]

Yes, they do. The infected file is probably inside the archive. Just delete the entire thing, it probably has more then one.

Armani

 

[MrBond]

Open up My Computer, go to Tools, Folder Options, View Tab. Uncheck "hide file extensions for known file types". That will display all file extensions.

As for virus scanners probing in zip files, it depends on the virus scanner, but I think most can.

 

[Antoneo]

Thanks guys, one more Q (also would like to know how to make win2k show the complete or "MSDOS style" filename in the file's properties).

If the actual filename is for example Mango_list.zip.exe wouldn't it show up as an executable (icon and properties) type of file? or is windows dumb enough to only look at the first three letters after the period of the supposed filename and display the file as a zip file??

 

[her209]

Delete the zip file.

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: her209
Delete the zip file.

Yeah I did that asap .