Re: Re: VIRUS ALERT!

["Erik Mitsch" <baron@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey all,

> Are you exposed to a virus just by opening an email msg or do you 
> have to
> open the attachment for the virus to be able to execute?

This actually depends how the virus is made.  If you use MS Outlook 
on Win95 or 98, and you can receive HTML messages, all you need to do 
is open the message (not even the attachment), and the virus will 
execute.  People have found loopholes in the ActiveX commands by 
using VB to create automatic scripts that run immediately when the 
message is viewed.

> similar question on links to web sites.  If the email msg contains 
> a web
> site link, does clicking on the link and browsing to the web site 
> enable a
> virus to execute?

Once again, this all depends.  Generally, browsers will ask if you 
want to download a file (the HTML itself won't hurt you - it's a file 
DLing in the background that will).  If you say no, there's a good 
chance you won't have a problem.  For the most part, you won't have 
this problem, though - e-mail viruses tend to attempt to exploit the 
ActiveX "security" loophole that I talked about up top, rather than 
having you actually go somewhere and do it yourself.

- Erik
http://www.baron-inc.net
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