Stupid question but is it possible to get a virus from an MKV file. (lemmings.world)

submitted 5 months ago by Thebay@lemmings.world to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Stupid question but is it possible to get a virus from an MKV file that is less than 24 hours old. I was streamed using VLC version 3.0.20 form the repose on Linux.

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[-] Charadon@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

In theory, you could make a fake executable with the mkv file extension on a unix system, by making it a shell script with a bunch of garbage data at the end, marking it executable, and distributing it with a tarball. But the chances someone will do that is insanely low.

Also it has caveats:

It'd rely on your double clicking it, and having your file manager not warning you about it.
Video players wouldn't run the shell script code, if it'd run the file at all.