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I downloaded Youtube videos, but found out just now it is illegal. I thought that if Mozilla page has add-on for that, it must be legal!

Could Youtube videos be infected? Could Youtube infect them to punish illegal downloading? I removed the add-on - should I delete those videos too to be safe?

If I use AVAST, Emsisoft Anti-Malware, Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware Free Edition, will I be safe and find anything there is?

I'll never download anything from Youtube ever again!

Raydaldolmn
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    Possible duplicate of [Malware infections from visiting or using YouTube](http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/30096/malware-infections-from-visiting-or-using-youtube) – Sjoerd Jan 19 '17 at 14:40
  • @Sjoerd It doesn't really say anything about downloaded videos being ifnected nor if Youtube could do this. – Raydaldolmn Jan 19 '17 at 14:42
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    Google purposely infecting people seems unlikely. It's criminal. – schroeder Jan 19 '17 at 14:42
  • @Sjoerd OP may argue that this is about downloading the videos using plugins and hence not a duplicate. . – Jedi Jan 19 '17 at 14:42
  • @Jedi Yes, thank you for wording this out! Because I used third party plugin from Mozilla site. – Raydaldolmn Jan 19 '17 at 14:43
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    @schroeder on the other hand, untrusted plugins may infect OP's system, – Jedi Jan 19 '17 at 14:43
  • @schroeder It is? But could they do it illegally? If yes, could those anti-malware programs detect anything or would something like Youtube have malware scanners would not find? – Raydaldolmn Jan 19 '17 at 14:44
  • @Jedi I used this from Mozilla site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-youtube/ – Raydaldolmn Jan 19 '17 at 14:44
  • See http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/15726/find-malware-in-browser-extensions and http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/38033/are-official-browser-add-ons-really-safe. – Jedi Jan 19 '17 at 14:45
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    I don't think that you should worry too much about it. Most antimalware should detect malicious plugins. Youtube isn't going to chase after you. – Jedi Jan 19 '17 at 14:48
  • @schroeder - not so. Youtube is definitely allowed to infect its own files - I cant help it if you choose to download the infected files, illegally. – thel3l Jan 19 '17 at 14:49
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    @Raydaldolmn you missed my point. If it was discovered, the fallout would be huge. – schroeder Jan 19 '17 at 15:17
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    @thel3l 'definitely allowed'? Really? I'd love to see a source on that wild assumption. – schroeder Jan 19 '17 at 15:17
  • @schroeder - legal.se time. – thel3l Jan 19 '17 at 15:45
  • http://law.stackexchange.com/questions/16523/is-infecting-your-own-files-illegal-how-does-this-differ-from-a-more-aggressive – Anders Jan 19 '17 at 17:05
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    you have to download them to watch them so that can't really be illegal. it might be against the terms of service to "manually manage cache", but it's not illegal, unless you share things you don't own. Is TIVO illegal? of course not... Also, video files are not executable, so they are terrible vectors that only sporadically and temporarily offer any kind of ingress into vulnerable applications, before those applications patch the bug that allowed code execution. – dandavis Jan 19 '17 at 18:40
  • "Term of service" are not an enforceable contract in almost all cases. – curiousguy Jul 31 '18 at 13:44

1 Answers1

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To answer your 4 questions :

  • Could (downloaded) Youtube videos be infected?

Technically, yes, even if it is quite unlikely. In such a case a malicious video could infect you if it targets a specific player (and possibly a specific version). In such a case, a malicious actor would have uploaded a video in the hopes that someone downloads it and then plays it with a vulnerable version of a specific player. Please note that technical treatments occur on Google's (Youtube's) side - such treatments could easily destroy the malicious content.

  • Could Youtube infect them to punish illegal downloading?

Technically, yes, but that would be illegal

  • I removed the add-on - should I delete those videos too to be safe?

To be lawful (and have morals), you should delete the videos for which you do not own the rights, if the videos you downloaded are protected. However if we are talking about being technically safe from infections, as mentioned in a previous bullet the chances that the videos contain working malicious code are slim. If you want risk-zero, delete them, even if the chances are very low

  • If I use AVAST, Emsisoft Anti-Malware, Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware Free Edition, will I be safe and find anything there is?

Not necessarily. AV's cannot detect everything.

As comments pointed out, it is good to note that the add-on that you used could have triggered an infection. It is always a good idea to be very careful when downloading browser add-ons / extensions, especially if they are used for possibly illegal purposes (which means that there is a slightly higher chance that the add-on author is malicious)

niilzon
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  • Could Youtube infect them to punish illegal downloading? Why would this be illegal? It's their own files that they choose to infect, let's think of it as a DRM of types. You illegally downloading them doesn't make it their fault. – thel3l Jan 19 '17 at 14:50
  • Agreed, although I would emphasize the fact that this is nearly impossible. This way of fighting piracy just doesn't make any sense. If you got infected it was probably due to something else, hell even the Firefox addon would be more likely to infect you than google. – r41n Jan 19 '17 at 14:53
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    Purposely infecting users, even if they are doing illegal activities regarding your products, is against the law (EU for sure, USA 99% sure.. ;) ). – niilzon Jan 19 '17 at 14:53
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    @thel3l This would be a question for legal.se, but, in general, courts don't agree with that sort of reasoning. Philosophical disagreement with vigilantism, and the risk of affecting the innocent (consider people using programs to help the disabled, for instance) are the general reasons – crovers Jan 19 '17 at 14:53
  • For legal reasons. For security reasons, indeed the risk is very small. – niilzon Jan 19 '17 at 14:55
  • @Anders I don't know of any occidental country where ripping protected material without authorization is legal – niilzon Jan 19 '17 at 14:56
  • OK, thank you for clarifying! I'll delete them and... hopefully no one comes after me for these downloads... – Raydaldolmn Jan 19 '17 at 15:18
  • @r41n - I agree. It is unlikely, but I'll head over to legal now. – thel3l Jan 19 '17 at 15:46
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    @the3l To take the US for example, 18 USC 1030(a) says that YouTube cannot "knowingly cause the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally cause damage without authorization, to a protected computer," [(5)(A)] or even "obtain information" from a protected computer [(2)(C)]. A computer is "protected" more or less if it has ever connected to the Internet, and the word "intentionally" can be a general intent (e.g. if you write a computer virus you "intended" to infect everyone it propagated to, not just the first-infected computer). – CR Drost Jan 19 '17 at 16:38