Can all types of files contain viruses? If not, which ones can?

Yea, executables, then again, it depends on what you consider a "virus" to be. If it’s a file that is harmful to your pc on execution, then it can be more then executable files.

Executables,(.exe, .com) Program information files (.pif) Screen Savers (.scr) are the most widely used other then .exe files to spread viruses via emails and also, currently, via Instant messaging programs.

Can viruses be in other forms? Yup..... fear the play list.....m3u. Winamp recently had a exploit in the m3u file, which let hackers embed a virus in it, so when you opened a play list in winamp, you were infected.

There was also a bitmap exploit in windows, which had a similar flaw, there’s ton of exploits found daily, so to answer to answer your question honestly, virus can be in ANY form, its not limited to anything.

Even via AOL Instant Messenger, there was crafted buddy icon exploits, you just IMed someone, if they accepted buddy icons, you could have compromised their pc rite there....

Nothing is secure....you can only minimize the possibilities of a breach.

Best you can do, is keeping your anti-virus software up to date, and have a good firewall, btw don’t use norton or mcafee. They stop global threats only, not the underground threats.

Hope that helped.

Lol yes, all of them. Some are harder to infect then others but in general anything can contain virii.. even Answer Bag. I guess.

Sorry Bob, but they can. Anyone ever hear of a little proggie called Gif Hide?

As far as i am aware, the only types of files that can contain viruses are files that contain executable code. For example, .exe, .com, .vbs files all contain executable code, so they could contain viruses.

However, data files, such as mp3 files, do not contain any executable code and so cannot contain viruses.

BUT.....virus writers are getting more and more skillful so who knows what may happen tomorrow / next week / next year

The most common are exe files (executables) but there are many files that could cause a mess in your computer. Viruses can attach to Jpeg and txt files too and will change the default value of registry keys.

Bob - You better get up to speed! Perrun Virus was an example of a virus attaching to a jpg file. So technically it is possible.If your computer is already infected it will cause it to be the interpreter for an image file. Trojans usually come attached to another file, such as a .avi, or .exe, or even a .jpg. Better be checking those jpg's.