IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [infection-vector]

Infection vectors are methods and channels used by attackers to infect computer systems.

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Are popular porn sites more likely to be infected with malware?

I'm trying to help my friend understand this because he believes that since a site is very popular, that it's less likely to infect its viewers because of its security! Is a popular site less likely to infect its viewers? Please answer this question…
Kervin Jacquet
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Security measures and anti-virus on server to mitigate acting as a propagation vector

We have a web application for which I've been asked to add the ability to let users upload documents that will then be visible and downloadable by other users. Those documents will typically be images and audit documents that will initially be in…
Bruno Girin
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Does it matter which platform a file is scanned on for malware?

Different operating systems use different file types and file systems. Does it make a difference to a virus scan which system it is being run on and what type of malware it's looking for? I ask because the way the files are archived may be…
Celeritas
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What are the most common infection vectors for personal computers?

We have OWASP to tell us about common security vulnerabilities in webapps and such, but what are the most common infection vectors for personal computers? A few example vectors: Social engineering (trojans) Browser exploits Document / application…
Polynomial
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What infection vectors is Trojan.Linux.BillGates usually delivered with?

I just discovered that my server is infected with Trojan.Linux.BillGates.G and is being used to launch DOS attacks. It surprises me as the server is kept up-to-date (CentOS/Tomcat/CouchDB) as much as possible. My SSH server is only accessible via…
Nicolas Raoul
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Phishing message in Outlook signature?

One of my organization's users just showed us an interesting problem: every message they tried to send (in OWA 365) contained the following scary text: Your mailbox has exceeded one or more size limits set by your administrator. Your mailbox size…
Foo Bar
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Can Tor nodes infect my computer with malware?

Can I get "hacked" by a Tor node? My computer is sending packets through the Tor nodes and receiving packets from them as well. Can I be sure that there are no Tor nodes that manipulate the packets sent through them and could infect my computer with…
Fidel Hogsed
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How are apps on the Play Store infected by malware?

I just read about the Xavier malware that has apparently "infected" some apps on the Google Play Store. As usual when there are news like this, they dumb it down to a level that most people can relate to, using terms like "infected with" etc. Some…
Magnus
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How does infection through web surfing work?

Often I read about compromise due to visit a malicious site which download some exploit to your computer. I've never seen a detailed process, all books/tutorials I read just say sentences like "once the site is visited, the target is compromised",…
The Illusive Man
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How content-type:image can lead to infected JAR file?

Symantec published a news about a malvertising campaign targeting IE users with Java exploits (already known vulnerabilities). At some point they explain that the users are redirected on malicious domains using the following GET : As we can see,…
ack__
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Percentage of 0-day vulnerabilities used as vectors for infections?

I chose that title, but there are probably several ways to ask this question. It's all about understanding how a computer (especially desktop, but you could generalize this to servers I guess) can get infected if it's always up to date (daily…
reed
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Is there any way to get infected by opening an email i.e., if an image is attached to the email?

I am curious about infections via email and how likely it would be possible to get infected through just opening an email, in various situations. I have been reading about people talking about 1x1 pixel images that could contain malware, or be a…
XaolingBao
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Is there a security benefit of using a Virtual Machine over dual booting?

I was looking at a question asking about Dual booting in SuperUser, and I was if there is added protection of using a VM over dual booting. From what I've been told, a VM is it's own sandbox, and that everything that happens (or almost everything)…
XaolingBao
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Why can't you and how to take a picture from infected computer?

Let's say I know that there is a computer than is heavily infested with viruses (but I do not know which kind of viruses) and needs to be nuked from orbit. And on that computer is a very important picture, png format, that I absolutely must have and…
Quillion
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Can a computer get infected with malware by viewing a PDF online?

Is it possible for a computer to be infected by viewing the link to a PDF file without downloading it? For example, if I opened a link on a website such as www.wordpress.com/somepdfFile.pdf (not a real site), are there current malware that can…
Lone Ronin
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