Questions tagged [malware]

Malware (short for Malicious Software) is a type of software designed to access a computer system without the owner's informed consent.

Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, scareware, crimeware, most rootkits, and other malicious and unwanted software or programs.

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How can I remove malicious spyware, malware, adware, viruses, trojans or rootkits from my PC?

What should I do if my Windows computer seems to be infected with a virus or malware? What are the symptoms of an infection? What should I do after noticing an infection? What can I do to get rid of it? how to prevent from infection by…
Gnoupi
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How and why is this string of text a fork bomb?

Found on a random chan board: echo "I
Karu
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Why does anti-virus software not delete the viruses, malware, etc., but instead quarantine them?

Why does anti-virus software not completely delete the viruses, malware, etc., but instead quarantine them? Is it not better to completely get rid of them? Why? And how can I manually remove them?
Sardar_Usama
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How can I fix a computer that is infested with malware and is extremely unresponsive?

Possible Duplicate: How do I get rid of malicious spyware, malware, viruses or rootkits from my PC? I'm troubleshooting a Windows 7 PC for a friend. A couple of days ago it started running 'slow'. It turns out 'slow' is about 15 minutes to the…
fredley
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Can AVI files contain a virus?

I'm downloading an AVI file via a torrent, but my anti-virus detects something. Is it possible that the AVI file contains a virus? It is quite weird since the torrent has many positive reviews.
IMB
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How can I make a Windows PC bullet-proof for home users?

I realize that virus-proof on a Windows PC is far fetched, but in the interest of keeping time spent as the "family-tech-support" to a minimum, I am looking for ideas to lock a computer down to the point that it is very hard to collect…
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How is Linux not prone to viruses, malware and those kinds of things?

How is Linux protected against viruses? This question was a Super User Question of the Week. Read the blog entry for more details or contribute to the blog yourself
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How can I determine what process a window belongs to?

Every time I start up windows vista lately, I see a random floating window. It is a tiny little window with no title, and only the resize, maximize and restore buttons. I'd post an image, but I don't have reputation here yet. I can close it, and it…
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Is there a point in installing antivirus on Ubuntu?

I have recently started using Ubuntu. I am wondering about the point of installing antivirus programs on Ubuntu. On SuperUser, I found the opinion that it only detects "windows viruses" and removes them. Is there a point in installing antivirus if I…
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Linux keylogger without root or sudo! Is it real?

Somebody on Youtube claims to have a keylogger on Ubuntu that was neither executed nor installed as root. The link below shows a demo of it working. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1fZAZTwyPQ Despite their claims to the contrary, this person could…
Mike Rowave
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Why do I have two desktop.ini files on my windows 8 desktop?

When I try to delete one of these two shortcuts, a message appears saying, "If you remove this file, Windows or another program may no longer work correctly."! I don't think that it is possible to keep same named files into a single directory. Is…
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What is JavaScript Obfuscation and why is it a threat?

AVG was recently telling me that a webpage was blocked because of JavaScript Obfuscation. Why was the webpage blocked and what exactly does that mean?
L84
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Is it possible to store arbitrary data in an image file?

Is it possible to store arbitrary data such as documents or a program in the form of an image file, such as a PNG image? My concern is that someone could encode data for use by malware into an image and upload it to a site like Flickr.
bwDraco
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php.net listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer

When I access php.net through Google search i get the following message saying The Website Ahead Contains Malware! See the screenshot attached below: Is it same for you guys? How can I avoid this? Does this mean the site has been hacked or…
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CMD prompt window pops up and instantly disappears periodically

Windows 10 - Every 10 minutes or so, a command line window flashes on my computer. I'm afraid I may have been infected by something. I've been staring at the Task Manager (and process explorer) for days, and can't narrow it down to what is causing…
boscher50
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