Obviously a bad attachment, but wasn't picked up as such by MBAM or AVG

[SarahES]

I got an email today, quite obviously a good for nothing one, but I was intrigued all the same. It was one of those 'Express Services Notification' emails, in which they proceed to tell you your item will be delivered within 7 business days etc and to find out more, download the .zip attachment. Well I didn't download it but I scanned it with both MBAM and my AVG and neither picked anything up. Is this because it's still in .zip format? Just curious.

Regards

Sarah

[exile360]

Greetings

That is correct, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware does not scan within zipped/compressed files because the files within such archives cannot be active (they must be extracted before they can execute). That being said, if the file were extracted and attempted to run, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware would have possibly detected it, though that is not certain as it depends on whether or not we have that infection in our database.

[SarahES]

Thanks for the fast reply exile360. I figured as much with the .zip file. I'm so tempted to see if the sucker is dealt with, being just a little email attachement, but maybe I shouldn't Curiosity killed the cat....or computer...

Sarah

[exile360]

If you like, you may upload the zip file here for analysis by our researchers, just follow the instructions in the pinned topics at the top in that area, you won't even need to unzip it so you won't risk infecting yourself.

[SarahES]

Thanks but I'll pass. I reckon the researchers might have enough on their plates with other more serious problems. I'd do it myself but I have a problem with my windows disc and recovery stuff atm (long long LONG story) so if for some strange and unlikely reason it does completely kill my laptop, I have no way of getting it back.

I kinda like battling virus'. I fixed my dad's laptop last year when that got a nasty infection. Pretty straighforward really but it was fun.

Thanks again,

Sarah

[exile360]

You're welcome

As for the researchers, they're always looking for new infections to play with so don't worry about them, but I understand your apprehension about infecting yourself and I don't blame you. If you aren't accustomed to handling malware, it's not something you should be playing with/analyzing.

Take care, and if there's anything else we can do to help, please let us know.

Thanks