About scanning (possibilities and limitations)

[Jaborovic]

Hello!

1) Thank you for creating this really nice program!

2) If I use attached CD-reader to insert program CD into Mac and open Malwarebytes and scan, it doesn't really scan the CD, just what might be bad in system? Basically, there is no meaning inserting CDs to scan for potential bad things. If there is bad thing, then Malwarebytes will find it AFTER I have inserted CD and installed something from there? Just wanting a clarification.

3) If I scan and during the scan, earphone wire was resting on keyboard, would it disturb scan process? As in, wire potentially pushing or moving keys (or me accidentally hitting key) during scan, could it stop Malwarebytes from finding malware? If scan seemingly finished?

[treed]

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac does not scan any external drives, so no, it won't find anything on an inserted CD. Of course, that's not really a likely means of transmission of threats, unless you've got someone burning bad installers to a CD. But I wouldn't install anything from a CD these days anyway, since that bypasses much of the built-in security in macOS. When you download an executable file from the internet, it gets "quarantined" and the system won't let you open it without some checks. Not so with files copied from something like a CD, flash drive, etc.

As for possible keypresses, if the scan completed normally, there wasn't an issue. The only possible source of trouble would be an accidental cancellation, such as pressing command-period or esc. If that were to happen, there would be a window alerting you that the scan was cancelled. Barring some accessibility settings being enabled, to allow clicking on any item in the interface using the keyboard, there's no way to dismiss that window with a keypress.

[Jaborovic]

I had some old devices I wanted to attached to Mac, but they had no drivers in Internet due to being too old. Well, if the CD came with scanner-printer AND is decade old, the likelihood of it containing anything harmful for Mac is impossible? Malwarebytes didn't find anything after I installed it. But I got curious of some other old things I tried to install (one scanner and one dictionary), but what refused to even work due incompatibilities.

 

I see, so there would be no hidden issues, nothing being missed during scan because keyboard was hit - if there are issues, Malwarebytes would notify? Thank you for such reliable tool!

 

[treed]

There's literally nothing that could be on a decade-old CD that could infect your Mac. Any software that old would be hard-pressed to run on a modern Mac to start with, and any malware that old would have additional hurdles to overcome.

[Jaborovic]

2 hours ago, treed said:

There's literally nothing that could be on a decade-old CD that could infect your Mac. Any software that old would be hard-pressed to run on a modern Mac to start with, and any malware that old would have additional hurdles to overcome.

Guess these days, even few months would mean being out of touch for both malicious and defensive software.

Thank you for your assistance!

 

[Jaborovic]

Sorry, my last comment made me think out of curiosity - how long is the time when infected file on external device becomes too outdated and unable to be a threat when connected to new, current device?

[treed]

There is no fixed amount of time for that sort of thing. It just depends on the specific threat, what systems it's compatible with, etc.