Can a picture have a virus? / myLot

United States

February 25, 2013 2:34pm CST

I was downloading a jpg picture and AVG popped up that it was a virus. Is it possible that an image could have a virus hidden in it? If not, why would AVG say it is?

1 person likes this

2 responses

urbandekay

@urbandekay (18278)

•

25 Feb 13

Yes, it is a common trick to hide a virus in a picture all the best, urban

1 person likes this

Just an Ordinary Owl?

@owlwings (43915)

• Cambridge, England

26 Feb 13

It is much more common to make an executable file LOOK like a .jpg by giving it a 'double extension' name - "mypicture.jpg.exe". By default, Windows will not show the final extension and all you see is "mypicture.jpg". The same trick is sometimes applied using other common extensions such as .zip[.exe].

savire

@savire (204)

• Indonesia

26 Feb 13

It could happen on average normal computer users. But if you smart enough you could always turn-off the "Hide extensions for known file types" inside the File and Folder Options in Windows Explorer. Besides the executable icon would not be the same as the JPG files unless your system registry already infected.

chiyochan

@chiyosan (30184)

• Philippines

2 Mar 13

I won't be able to contribute much on this topic but I'd just like to share that i sure have learned a lot reading through the discussion and the responses of our fellow mylotters. thank you so much! :D