flowboys.blogg.se - Windows defender for mac

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You've heard it a million times before.Īre they basically suggesting that there might be some exploitable holes in the software we use "regularly" (like excel or Apple numbers, or Apple preview for PDFs), and they can exploit those loopholes to install something somehow? Don't open files from untrustworthy sources, have an up-to-date anti-virus, etc. When talking to the average user, I would repeat the same handful of security tips you have heard a million times. And if you have to, do it in a VM on an airgapped machine, which you completely scrub afterwards. If you have a bad feeling with a file, don't open it. Your instinct is the most advanced part of the brain, optimized over millions of years through the most brutal optimization process in existence - you do well to use it. When talking to an expert, I would say "Trust your gut!". It depends largely on the technical expertise of who you are talking to. If there was, we wouldn't have to worry about malware. There is no perfect one-size-fits-all solution. Not because they understand that the action they're about to take is risky, but because their computer asks them so often if they want to do something and they're used to playing the little game where they have to find the button that makes the computer do what they want to do. While there are indeed measures to mitigate some of these risks, often times these include asking the user if they want to do something risky.

#Windows defender for mac zip

For one, they can cause Denial-of-Service attacks through something like a zip bomb or place arbitrary files on a machine through zip slipping.

ZIP Files: ZIP files can be quite dangerous.

Spreadsheets: Also related to Office applications, you can create a malicious spreadsheet, which executes OS commands when being opened.

For example, you can steal NTLM hashes like that. The general idea is that you send someone an office document, claim that it contains some important information, then create the document in such a way that it only displays the supposed information if macros are enabled.

Office Documents: One of the most prominent attacks in Office documents is macros.

#Windows defender for mac pdf

PDF Files: PDF is a complex file format and as of the time of this writing, over 1500 expoits related to PDFs exist in the CVE database.

Here is a list of some common file types and how they could be dangerous: Always presume that a file is dangerous, even if you can't imagine how it could possibly. Which Files Are Dangerous?īasically, all of them. I assure you that a significant amount of people, who work in an office, can't tell the difference between a PDF document and a Word document, so explaining what the risk of each is is not very productive.Īs such, broad statements like " Don't open files from e-mail attachments unless they are from a trusted source" are useful still, even if they are not 100% technically correct.

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I know entirely too many people, who think computers are basically a box full of plastic and magic.Įxplaining to these people which file extensions are more likely to be dangerous and which ones are less likely to be dangerous will probably lead to a lot of confusion. You may be a security expert, or at least a very knowledgable person when it comes to computers, but the vast majority of people - even those, who work with computers on a daily basis - are not. Simple Instructions Over "Correct" Instructions

doc file on a Mac, but is that not true?Īs a bonus question, if it is still true today that opening a "normal" file might install malware, what is the recommended approach to avoiding this, assuming you want to be able to open these files (and assuming you've checked it's from reputable sources, etc.).

#Windows defender for mac windows

I know this used to be the case on old Windows machines in the 90s, but is it still the case on any computer? Obviously if you open a shell file or executable file or app that might be a problem, but at least on Macs, Apple has that warning popup.Īre they basically suggesting that there might be some exploitable holes in the software we use "regularly" (like excel or Apple numbers, or Apple preview for PDFs), and they can exploit those loopholes to install something somehow? The loophole would be unknown to the company providing the software but known to the attacker? That's the only way I can see them getting access to your computer, is there another way? I would assume in today's world, there is 0% chance of getting "infected" by opening a PDF or. Corporate security trainings keeps saying "download a file from the web or email attachment and open it and you might become infected".