Why do rar files have viruses

And finally, having opened it, and now having the components files visible, you want to be using a good anti-virus program that looks at and checked those component files before running any of them. Windows has no ability to open rar files. You need a third-party program to do it here's one: www. And your safety will come from your anti-virus program if you try to run a component file of the rar file. Choose where you want to search below Search Search the Community.

Search the community and support articles Windows Windows 7 Search Community member. Is there a safe way to open an rar file using a windows program? This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. I have the same question It is something quite common, a reality with which we live. Anyone who surfs the web frequently knows that the possibility of having some kind of malware on the computer is always high.

The best way to stay totally safe is to always keep our antivirus updated and, above all, to be aware of what we are going to download. That is why it becomes essential that one be aware of what we find or can find on the internet and be cautious. This combination is without a doubt the best defense you have against malware. But another thing you can do is basically not download any kind of file until you are absolutely sure that it can be trusted. Actually, it is much easier than you think.

Many malware appear when we download some kind of file to our computer. Sometimes it comes as an executable, since perhaps it is a program that we need, on other occasions it can come compressed in RAR and when we decompress it we find a great surprise.

For this reason, it would be best to analyze the RAR file before downloading it. This way you can make sure that it does not have any kind of virus before it is on your computer. This method is much safer than having to expose your computer by downloading said file. The process is very simple and we are going to see a little below step by step how you should do to know if a RAR file has a virus before downloading it to your computer.

All this with a web application, this means you will not need to download any kind of program to be able to do it. I heard from some techie person that. What they probably meant to say was that if a virus is in an archive, it cannot do any damage. This is because it is not running, and can't run, until it is extracted.

This security benefit goes away if a user unzips it. It is no more safe in reality though, than any other file on your computer that you are not clicking on. EDIT: If it was automatically safe, that would be the best anti-virus program in the world. Typical viruses usually append themselves to executable files, so that they themselves get loaded into memory. They will then spread to other executable file to increase their chance of getting loaded and spread.

Archives zip, rar, etc dont get infected as they arent executed. However, archives are an extremely common way to spread infected executables. There may be viruses that specifically target archives, such as zip and rar.

I dont think your "techie person" can say that so matter of factly. More than likely, he doesnt know what he is talking about, or just said that to give you an answer. What I think he is saying is that winrar can protect your files from basic virus like the ones we encounter most times not the type that is directed to ur. When a file inside an archive is modified, the archiver let's say WinRAR will ask you if you want to update the archive.

So, you run an EXE wich is inside of an archive, on an infected computer. During this process, the EXE file will be extracted to Windows's temp folder and let's suppose that the virus will infect it. When you close the archive that's when you will be asked if you want to update the archive, because the file was modified.

IMPORTANT: keep in mind also that if the EXE I gaved as an example, has a configuration file that resides in the same folder you maybe also be asked the same question, because after extraction and execution the program will try to save it's configuration file. Archive a text document, then open this document inside the archive and edit it. Then close the archive.

I must say that an archive is the perfect antivirus!