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.pif's are bad

PhiPhi <font color=#FF0000>C</font><font color=#FF9900>o</font><font color=#FFFF00>l</font><font color=#00F
in Zocalo v2.0
There are viruses travelling around via MSN messenger either in link or file form. A number of my friends have been caught by them. The links/files all have various names, but they all end in .pif. When you open them, they propogate to other's on your contact list and can infect your computer with a virus.

Summary: don't touch .pif's

Thankyou

-Φ

Comments

  • The Cabl3 GuyThe Cabl3 Guy Elite Ranger
    duh silly!






    What the hell is the origin of the .pif I used to see them alot in Windows 3.11 back in the day. Haven't seen em since.
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    .pif 's are Program Information (or Initialize) Files

    They were used mostly to create an Icon for non windows DOS apps to set up environ variables and DOS window specifics.
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    I love how backwards compatibility by MS always allows viruses, worms, and trojans to run...but never your old apps.
  • E.TE.T Quote-o-matic
    Are you sure they're PIFs because they might not be PIFs, if you use nuisance feature which disables showing file extensions of known file types file which have txt as extension might be well even EXE.
  • PhiPhi <font color=#FF0000>C</font><font color=#FF9900>o</font><font color=#FFFF00>l</font><font color=#00F
    All the versions I've seen have been .pif's. Trick is, the real MSN messenger doesn't tell you the extension of the sending file (ooh...clever...), so the only reason I knew they were .pif's were because trillian told me that's what was trying to send. I've also had a message with a link to a file ending in .pif.

    I doubt they're .exe's, but they might be .png's, in relation to [url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS05-009.mspx]this security bulliten[/url] (friends who clicked the link mentioned seeing a photo).

    -Φ
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