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Originally Posted by Phantom
It's not even difficult. I could write you an executable that will go right past your virus scanner and do something nasty. The difficulty is to convince you to actually run that executable, and if that's impossible, find a way to run it on your computer without you knowing it, for example by embedding it in another piece of software (Winrar) or by spreading it through exploits in other pieces of software.
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Yeah, you could. And, again, if somebody did that, people would complain that the software damages your computer when you run it. And if the software was popular enough, anti-virus and other security companies would be scrambling to figure out what to do about it.
If you're really trying to sell me the thought that somebody could write a program that damages or could damage your computer, have several people (or more) install it and use it, and NOBODY EVER FIGURES OUT that it's damaging or there's a possible exploit, well, I'm not buying, sorry.
True it may lie dormant for many years, like the recent WMF problem. But then, as soon as somebody started exploiting the problem, WHAM, all sorts of techie sites were blabbing about it.
Finally, even if you argue that you're taking an already established program and adding your own malicious code to it, well, it's my own stupidity if I don't make sure I'm downloading the software from a site I know doesn't have a record of passing virus-laden versions of offerings.
Yeah, it always sucks if you're the first person to get bit by some exploit or malware. As I said, I know life isn't risk-free. But there's a far cry between taking a chance on software that lots of people haven't had complaints about, and taking a chance on software that lots of people *have* had complaints about. Again, not a good analogy.
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Originally Posted by Phantom
So once again, Winrar is just as potentially dangerous to your system as is Starforce, until proven otherwise. Don't get too paranoid about it.
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And seeing as how, again, nobody's made any major fuss about Winrar, but there's been major fuss about StarForce, well, I promise to dole out my paranoia accordingly.
Peace & Luv, Liz
