Go for it, I am sure that is just what the network needs.

Are we not all little Robin Hoods.......(the ones that SHARE that is)

I always thought that we were.

I would be very interested in knowing how such a virus would get the system to execute it's code so that it could "do its thing". To my miind, such "virus code" would only be Played through Winamp and, therefore, never have a chance to infect the system. What I'm saying (trying to be nice) is that only files containing executable code can carry a virus. (Yes "macros", "VBscript" files, and even Java classes are executable. But, mp3s and jpgs are not!)


The Mandragora Worm was our reminder to check all executable code. ("Wear protection for all encounters involving penetration!"...)

I always thought that mp3's where safe, let me explain what happened.
I was dl-ing a mp3 by "Morphine" it was a track I never heard of and it had absolutely .Mp3 as extention
(I thought I had everything of morphine)
The dl is almost finished, then norton av pops up, warning! referring to the unfinished mp3, (at that stage a Phex mp3.dl file)
So I aborted the dl, and scanned the file, wich according to norton contained a virus and could not be repaired.
I deleted it a while ago so I am not quite shure wat virus it was, and I can't find it in the log anymore but when I wanted to report it, I got the message, it was well known and not necessary to report.

edit:
I haven't got a clue how this "mp3 virus" would get the chance to indeed do it's thing, but who would rename a virus to mp3 if it did not do anything?

I did a search and found a MP3 virus called BLOAT but it looks to have been a hoax...

http://www.mp3.com/news/111.html

Mp3 files do not have execution code, and even if they had some high level execution code (like Java), it would not be given full access to your system because that would be way to excessive for a music file.

What might have happened with that file your downloading was that, norton just looks for patterns, if you recall you said the file extension was "dl" not "mp3" (similar to DLL but that is not the issue), viruses have certain kinds of patterns and some like to hide themselves in data files, that kind of virus has to be executed to run in your system (some other program has to know where the virus is to execute it and mp3s again dont have executable code). So what likely happened is that coincedently a pattern in the mp3 file looked like a viruses pattern to norton.

Just in case though, I will do a little more research on MP3 viruses to see if there was any other hoaxs or any other issues...

Another possibility I have heard is an executable virus that has been renamed to look like an mp3 file... but it would be up to the media playing software to look at a file and figure out if its an mp3 file and if its not if its an executable and try to execute it... not many programs do this, I tried for example renaming an executable to mp3 and winamp didnt do it, tried renaming it to avi and windows media player said it was not an avi. So it seems in most cases an mp3 is safe...

I will try to find that Morphine virus again,and let you know if i'll find it .
btw, If you like jazzy music do some Morphine searching yourself

"I've got a head with wings...."

I do not think it is possible to insert a virus in a mp3, although I did find some weird mp3 wich were playable, but, to burn them as an audio track you had to convert them to a wav file (nero=unrecognised format, adaptec=copyright something...) And another kind of weird mp3 was playable fully but if I tried to edit it with nero wav editor I could only edit the first minute or so...

I doubt that any program that cannot load a file would try to rename it into a .com or .exe and run them.. it would just be looking for trouble...