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Can viruses be EMBDED inside zip archives?

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quadcore86

Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Can viruses be embeded inside zip archives?

By embeded I mean that the zip archive ITSELF is a virus?

Like if a .exe file which happened to be a virus was archived and then unzipped, to infect, the .exe file must be clicked and opened. That is how it works. BUT, can the archive itself be a virus? Meaning that you don't even have to open the .exe file, all you have to do is just unzip it.

BTW, I'm talking about regular .zip files (nothing fancy like executable archives, .tars, .rars etc). The unzipper i'm using is the Windows built-in one.
 
quadcore86 said:
Can viruses be embeded inside zip archives?

By embeded I mean that the zip archive ITSELF is a virus?

Like if a .exe file which happened to be a virus was archived and then unzipped, to infect, the .exe file must be clicked and opened. That is how it works. BUT, can the archive itself be a virus? Meaning that you don't even have to open the .exe file, all you have to do is just unzip it.

BTW, I'm talking about regular .zip files (nothing fancy like executable archives, .tars, .rars etc). The unzipper i'm using is the Windows built-in one.

Think of a zip file as a compressed folder. Can a folder be a virus? Nope. Same goes for a zip file, the zip itself is just an indication that contents are compressed using a method.

Cheers, Flix
 
Seeing that there are virus jpegs, then virus zips are possible in the same way. Don't think any actually exist though, for one the virus would only work with one unzipping program, making it an unattractive way to do things...
 
You can combine multiple .exe files into one executable. So, yes, to answer your question, they can. If you don't know if you can trust the zip file, DELETE IT. Easy as that, don't risk it.
 
sure they can be hidden deep inside. Thats why most AV programs allow you to usually go 10 directories deep on a zipped archive.
 
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