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As you know Gmail scans attachment for viruses (when using native web interface). I was wondering if Gmail is doing the same thing when used by email client such as Thunderbird ?
If not is there possibility to turn it on? or I need to enforce local antivirus protection such as Avast ?
I was googling this stuff nearly hour, but couldn't find any answer so thought someone here could help me. I'm a full time Linux/Mac user and I dealing with a Windows machine here, it's just been a long time since and I'm bit out of date :)
If it's a
.fake
file, then there's no risk of it being executed by the user on accident. There's also no way to embed a working virus into a JPEG file or other image types. There was a remote code execution exploit in the way Windows handled WMF images, but this has been patched long ago. The only people who really need to worry about malicious image files today are webmasters, since web servers can be tricked into executing code inside of a JPEG or other traditionally nonexecutable formats. – Lèse majesté – 2012-04-08T22:09:50.737Also, whether or not you store emails locally is irrelevant in regards to preventing virus infection. Even if you use IMAP, you're just as vulnerable to all email infection methods. And it's perfectly safe to use Thunderbird even without an AV installed as long as you don't download and execute random files. Similarly, you can use webmail without being "tracked" locally by simply using a browser like Chrome or Firefox that has an incognito/private browsing mode. – Lèse majesté – 2012-04-08T22:13:48.143
Mel, did you try it ? :) – equivalent8 – 2012-04-20T16:43:53.620