Can audio/video files get virus infected?

[ArkiStan]

Can individual audio/video files (mp3, avi, mpg, etc) get infected with viruses? I make it a rule to manually scan all files as soon as they're downloaded. Although I don't think it's too much of a hassle to keep my computer safe, it would be nice not to have to do it for at least mp3's and video clips.

I use the AVG Antivirus FREE edition. Does the "Resident Shield" already scan all downloaded files automatically? I mostly use edonkey/emule-type P2P agent for my downloads. The d/l program I use doesn't have a "scan downloaded files" function.

[zero2dash]

I'm sure it's highly likely that there's virus-infected files out there; I was under the impression that p2p networks are swarming with them. (Well, at least anything that isn't BitTorrent-related, which I can vouch for...I use BitTorrent exclusively for p2p and I've never once had a virus.)

The resident scanner should detect the virus as it's saved to your computer though, so you should be able to go without manually scanning them. I don't have any experience with AVG personally, but I know that Symantec A/V's resident scanner has detected trojans from a downloaded file while it was still being downloaded. :) There's a lot of AVG users on here though - I'm sure someone knows for sure.

[ArkiStan]

I was just looking around the Resident Shield settings and found this option:

"Resident Shield scans files with extensions 386, ASP, BAT, BIN, BMP, BOO, CHM, CLA, CLASS, CMD, CNM, COM, CPL, DEV, DLL, DO*, DRV, EML, EXE, GIF, HLP, HT*, INI, JPEG, JPG, JS*, LNK, MD*, MSG, NWS, OCX, OV*, PCX, PGM, PHP*, PIF, PL*, PNG, POT, PP*, SCR, SHS, SMM, SYS, TIF, VBE, VBS, VBX, VXD, XL*, XML, ZL*.
Checking files without extension is turned on."

If you disable this option, it'll scan all files regardless of the extension. Maybe the above are "infectable file types?" If so, I don't see MP3 or any video formats.

[zero2dash]

You should be able to add extensions to scan (ie .mp3, .mov, .wma, .mp4) and it will scan them, or you can disable the option and it will scan everyfile type. I think by default, most a/v scanners will scan every file type (again, Symantec a/v does)...I'd recommend scanning everything just to be safe. :thumb:

[Paymaster]

Any file can get a virus in it, but since an MP3 is just a "data" file, it generally would not be able to spread anywhere. It may not even corrupt the file.

Having said that, someone found a way a while back to insert a virus in a jpeg file which then caused some standard microsoft jpeg viewers to overflow buffers and allow bad things to happen.

So, mp3 files are pretty safe for now, but you can't be sure that they will always be. Anything "executable" is a high risk.

[Grimm]

I never put it past a virus writer to find a flaw in a program, such as a media viewer that can cause it to execute some code to the detriment of the user.