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This is a new one on me. Is it possible for an email to contain a virus or trojan horse that executes a print command?

Chas.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:This is a new one on me. Is it possible for an email to contain a virus or trojan horse that executes a print command?

Chas.

Possible, if it has a link or attachment you clicked. Otherwise, it shouldn't execute anything automatically. What mail program are you using??

Keith B wrote: What mail program are you using??

This is key, if your email client auto-attempts to render HTML emails using an internal or external browser, then any browser vulnerabilities can be exploited simply by you opening the email.
Same with Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets with macros. If the email client auto-displays them, or auto-opens then, then it can auto-infect you.

I'm not sure how many email clients do that with documents, but I know some out there like to auto-load HTML pages and images.

Best way is to set your email client to display plaintext only, and then switch to HTML if it's from a trusted source.

Keith B wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:This is a new one on me. Is it possible for an email to contain a virus or trojan horse that executes a print command?

Chas.

Possible, if it has a link or attachment you clicked. Otherwise, it shouldn't execute anything automatically. What mail program are you using??

Outlook and I'm using the preview pane. I've heard or read (long ago) that preview panes can launch some scripts, but I use it more often than I open the email.

Chas.

There was a Outlook preview pane vulnerability about 6-7 years ago, but think it has been patched and haven't heard of any issues since. However, that doesn't mean there is a new vulnerability someone has found and started exploiting it.

Supposedly there's a Patch due tomorrow for Office due to a vulnerability that allows execution of code without user interaction:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... ch-tuesday" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That might be what hit you, Charles.

I dont know the name of what we got but it came in an email about a yr ago & it was a forwarded one from our son. I had opened it before he called & said not to.
TOOOO LATE.
Sis had not opened hers.
Sure wrecked our home box here.

I'm not much into coding/scripting/programming nowdays, but I believe it is possible,
to run or execute a ctrl+P command to print through javascript onmouseover possibly

onMouseOver = "do_this();"

RPB wrote:onMouseOver = "do_this();"

That may explain what happened. An undesirable website was launched and something printed. I was not happy! I wonder why Norton didn't catch it?

Chas.

Well, I quit using Norton in 1995, long story as to why.

But in an E-mail program if scripting is enabled, javascript can run and onmouseover used to call functions to run

You might check that your E-mail program Options and Security/options in your E-mail program TOOLS as well as Control Panel Internet Options Security AND Advanced settings tabs are set for good security. Additionally, be sure to update any Adobe applications and Java.

I don't have Outlook on this computer, but I recall a setting in Options in it to restrict it to safer "internet restricted zones"

Some E-mail programs are more secure than others, but Norton nor any other antivirus program will catch "that which is not a virus"

Example, a batch file, like autoexec.bat or config.sys are basically TEXT/notepad type files saved with an extension of .bat or .sys which list a "batch" of commands or things to do on computer startup in older versions of Windows. They are essentially text files, not viruses. More I won't say except in a PM, probably said too much already, but I doubt there are any blackhat hacker wannabe kids on this site.

( I beat the "unbeatable AT&T/SouthWestern Bell Tic-Tac-Toe computer" at 1968 HemisFair in San Antonio, and handled security for MSN's chat servers as a second job to being a legal Asst. and owning 1337Computers, where I designed things)

Alvasin wrote:I had been facing problem with this Trojan horse.I think Avast will be suitable for curing this virus,But it can hamper your exe files.One can try NOD32 for curing it.

AVG Free
Avast
Microsoft Security Essentials <- they have come a looong way!

Those antivirus...Avast and AVG are almost the same, I just like AVG a bit more

WarHawk-AVG wrote: AVG Free
Avast
Microsoft Security Essentials <- they have come a looong way!

Those antivirus...Avast and AVG are almost the same, I just like AVG a bit more

I use those also Alvira from Germany, Threatfire from PC Tools, and Ad-Aware from LavaSoft.

One more for the toolbox... Trend Micro Housecall is a free online virus/malware scanner. I usually start it to do a full system scan at night. It can take hours to run, but it will check everything.

Also you can block about 95% of more of the garbage that comes into you...by simply adding those sites to your hosts file

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What this does..even if you do download or hit a site that tries to re-direct you to a buncha garbage...it will end up going to nowhere as it gets re-directed from its valid ip to 127.0.0.1

By the way Spybot S&D does the same thing with a bit different list (when it does its "inoculation")...add them together and see how much less the garbage gets thru...only problem I found is those streaming movies sites that force you to watch the advertisements for their "funding" end up not allowing you to view the movies...small price to pay to shut down almost ALL garbage on the web!