Oscraps

Decompression bombs

M

mskinsey

Member
Hi everyone!

I'm wondering if anyone here has had any experience with something called a "compression bomb"? It's a type of compressed file that looks innocent on the outside, but when it is unzipped, it can keep expanding exponentially until it eats up all the memory on your hard drive. When that happens, you won't be able to access anything on your computer, much less open files, which amounts to what is called a "denial of service."

The reason I ask is because I've downloaded at least five files recently that my virus scan program (A-Vast) is telling me are decompression bombs. What should I do with them? Are they safe to unzip?
 
oooooooh, that sounds nasty!! sorry I can't help! I think I would be getting it checked out more thoroughly before doing anything.........does your virus program have a helpdesk you can call to ask someone maybe?? hope you keep us in the loop as to what happens! :confused:
 
Both the tech support at our house say, "don't open them". =) Delete them or let Avast vault them. If you are downloading them from a known site or digi-scrap provider, inform them that they are infected. If it is a well-known site or person, they might be able to try to get you a cleaned up version. If they are freebie files of some kind, I would avoid that freebie provider in the future and just write them off.
 
Yikes! i never heard of them, but they sound awful.
ITA with Sara. IMHO- it isn't worth taking the chance.
 
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