0

Could a video file contain code that reveals and sends your ip/mac address or give access to personal files to somebody else? Would normal video players (like VLC) be able to notice that kind of security issue and not run that specific part?

Thanks

EDIT: I'd like to be more specific. I downloaded a tutorial video from a website. The video was uploaded by another user. I noticed that I had my antivirus turned off. I was wondering if that person could have included something in the video (program/script?, I am not familiar with the terminology) that would allow him to see who downloaded and opened that video and give them access to my computer.

I probably sound paranoid lol.

George
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
    You are basically asking if a video file contains malware which will be executed by the player. And the tags you used (trojan, malware) also suggest this. Does this answer your question? [Virus Encoded in Video](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/18086/virus-encoded-in-video). In short: videos don't have such a feature but video players might have bugs. Since this is about but there is nothing about "notice it and not run it" - that's the point of a bug to do something it is not supposed to do. – Steffen Ullrich May 31 '21 at 20:50
  • Also, if the video file uses certain DRM or is online and not downloaded locally it could contact a server for either purpose. But the codec that do the DRM are often upfront about it. And the other one is clearly a link not a file – LvB May 31 '21 at 21:41
  • I haven't heard of such an exploit in many many years. Odds are strongly that you're fine. IP's are part of normal internet protocol, you give everyone you connect to your IP, it's not something to protect *normally*. MACs are not even part of Internet Protocol. Relax - Be Happy. – user10216038 May 31 '21 at 22:06

1 Answers1

0

I downloaded a tutorial video from a website. […] I was wondering if that person could have included something in the video (program/script?, I am not familiar with the terminology) that would allow him to see who downloaded and opened that video

If the file you downloaded was the video itself (probably a least a few megabytes or more) then basically:

  • some random other user who uploaded the video — if separate from the owner of the website — probably won't know about you (unless the site gives them detailed statistics like that, but most forums and stuff don't)
  • the owner of the website can collect all sorts of information about who downloads the videos — your IP address, basic details about which browser and operating system versions you have, plus any and all login account information and other tracking cookies the site might have
  • depending on how you downloaded the video, it might be a little harder for the site to tell why you accessed the video file. Your browser usually makes approximately the same sort of request to the server whether it's getting a resource to "save" it versus just to "view" it in the normal video player the site might embed.

If the file you downloaded was some sort of playlist (like an .m3u or other extension, usually only one or two kilobytes) then it's a bit more complicated. The original website operator would know all of the above, but then the file itself might point to other additional website(s) for the actual video data. Then those additional websites would also be able to at least get your IP address and probably some basic information about what video player you are using.

and give them access to my computer.

This would be a lot harder. The file would have to have some corrupt data in it that would have to trigger a series of bugs in your video player program before it could run new code on your computer. Probably this would crash the video player instead of actually playing the video, but not 100% guaranteed.

If you have a trustworthy video player installed and keep both it and your operating system current with all the latest updates this is less likely to happen.

I'd say if it's just a "normal site" that hosts e.g. video tutorials it prefers you to watch online, the chances of this are very low. They probably make their money off of subscriptions or ads or user data or even provide the content out of goodwill — anyway with some exceptions they probably wouldn't try break into their users' computers.

But if it's a site that lured you into visiting on the promise of some Special Experience only possible if you "click here" then it's a lot more likely they didn't have your best interest in mind.

natevw
  • 131
  • 5