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Question about viruses/malware and e-mail

K

Ken90630

Golden Member
Hey, All,

I've been wondering about this for awhile: Can viruses or other malware get into a computer via e-mail if the user simply opens the e-mail? Or does there need to be an infected attachment (executable or otherwise) that the recipient opens? In other words, can the virus or trojan or whatever be in the e-mail without there being an attachment?

And while we're on the subject, have there ever been any viruses or other malware that affected RAM or actually damaged a motherboard? Or does all malware simply infect hard drives only?

Had a conversation with a friend about this subject today and I wasn't sure about some of these things. Can anyone educate me a bit here?
 
Can viruses or other malware get into a computer via e-mail if the user simply opens the e-mail?
Click to expand...
I've always heard that. One of the precautions is to disable the preview pane in OE or possibly other mail clients.
 
Originally posted by: Spacehead
Can viruses or other malware get into a computer via e-mail if the user simply opens the e-mail?
Click to expand...
I've always heard that. One of the precautions is to disable the preview pane in OE or possibly other mail clients.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a given. But I'm still wondering if a virus or other malware can be in an e-mail if there's no attachment.

Anyone else wanna chime in?

 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes.
Click to expand...

How? I've been discussing this issue with a friend of mine and I'd like to know a little more about how that can happen. She keeps saying she's safe from viruses/malware 'cuz she never opens attachments, but I had heard that malware can get in via e-mail even if there's no infected attachment. But I don't know how or why, so I'm not very persuasive. 😱

Can you elaborate a little and educate me?

 
As noted above, the preview / view panes.

Most apps use the IE engine to render HTML email, and this has allowed all kinds of buffer-overrun, activex, and script code exploits.

That's one reason I use Eudora, you can switch from IE to its build-in (crippled) HTML rendering that is safe from the above.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
As noted above, the preview / view panes.

Most apps use the IE engine to render HTML email, and this has allowed all kinds of buffer-overrun, activex, and script code exploits.

That's one reason I use Eudora, you can switch from IE to its build-in (crippled) HTML rendering that is safe from the above.
Click to expand...

Interesting. So even if the recipient receives, say, an e-mail that says something like, "Hi, Mary, the company party is next Friday ...," and there's no attachment with the e-mail, there can be script code or some other 'bad' code in the text or something (?) of the e-mail and the recipient can be infected anyway? Just by reading a plain e-mail?

If that's the case, that's kinda scary. And it would explain why so many people get infected, huh? :Q

 
Yes, you notice how "plain" email contains bold, italic, underline, colors, etc? That means it's really HTML email that contains all kinds of codes and even scripts (that might not run if the browser is locked down).

Also, for awhile there was an explot to get bad code to run when it was stuffed into pictures embedded in an email (including clear/tansparent images).

A lot of these attacks are now blocked IF your Windows has all the security updates, but hackers keep finding new exploits.
 
Thanks, Dave. That was the info I needed to understand this better. :light:

In addition to Windows patches, I assume firewalls help too. I know mine is set to scan all incoming e-mail, and I remember configuring settings (when I first installed it) for script debugging and when to allow Active X controls and Java applets to run. And I think I maxed out the heuristics protection as well. It has been awhile since I did all that; think I'll click on over & check all my settings again. 😀

I never use the preview pane, but a friend of mine does. Hopefully this info will get her to change her ways before it's too late. 😀
 
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