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*headdesk* NEVER do this!

Shadowhawk827

By Shadowhawk827,
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Shadowhawk827

Shadowhawk827

Posted
Posted

OK folks, just a common sense warning about downloads...

 

NEVER, and the Rock means Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever  download an .exe file from somebody or some site you don't know.  No matter who you DL it from, even your best buddy, scan it with Anti0Virus and a Malware program before you even think about running it.

 

WHY am I bringing this up?  Because I don't want you to do what I see a few people on the nexus doing right now; downloading self-extracting .exe files from a BRAND NEW account in Russia.

 

Could this guy be legit?  Maybe.   Does it smell fishy though?  Hell yes!

 

1)  The guy named his account "THisAccountIsUseless"

 

2)  He is from Russia, where a good portion of cyber crime originates.

 

3)  He's uploaded 4 or 5 files.  Who creates that many new mods in one day?

 

4)  They're all self installing .exe files.

 

5)  He did it at a time when there's NO staff onsite at the Nexus. 

 

 

Now in this guy's defense, I scanned one of his files with my Antivirus and it came back clean.  That doesn't mean he isn't using a zero day (newly invented) virus that hasn't been added to the virus definitions yet though. 

 

Use common sense folks.  Don't let some hacker put a trojan virus on your PC that gives them remote access to your rig and access to all your personal info.   Stealing your personal info and using it against you is the job of Google and the governemt.

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Shadowhawk827

Shadowhawk827

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I don't know where you saw a mod with an .exe, there are none in any of his mods on the nexus.

 

 

Looks like he went through and re-did them as regular 7z files after some of us got on his case about it.   They were all exe files less than an hour ago.

 

Doesn't change the general message either, make darn sure you know what you're gettign when you DL an exe file.

 

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Shadowhawk827

Shadowhawk827

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Oh really  :dodgy:

 

DL what you want Dark Scar.   I can refer you to at least a half dozen websites run by cyber security organizations and professionals that tell you the same things I stated above.

 

Yes, this guy was either innocent or we stopped him by badgering him into using 7zip files instead, but his initial behavior sent up several red flags I was trained to look for when I got my Network Security degree.

 

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Coopervane

Coopervane

Posted
Posted

I can kinda see why a Nexus modder would be tempted to use .exe files. The sheer amount of computer illeterate people trying to mod their game of Skyrim has really supriced me, i mean, we're talking users who are baffled by the concept of dragging a file from one folder into another, and claim that such a thing is hi-tech witchcraft that they should not have to deal with. I wish that was hyperbole, but no.

 

I can only assume that Skyrim-modding was the gateway drug for many Console gamers to try their hand at the PC, which is nice to see, but it does come with a sideorder of issues apparently.

 

 

That said, i'd never download an .exe file from some random modder, there could by anything in that.. :huh:

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Guest endgameaddiction

Guest endgameaddiction

Posted
Posted

I can kinda see why a Nexus modder would be tempted to use .exe files. The sheer amount of computer illeterate people trying to mod their game of Skyrim has really supriced me, i mean, we're talking users who are baffled by the concept of dragging a file from one folder into another, and claim that such a thing is hi-tech witchcraft that they should not have to deal with. I wish that was hyperbole, but no.

 

I can only assume that Skyrim-modding was the gateway drug for many Console gamers to try their hand at the PC, which is nice to see, but it does come with a sideorder of issues apparently.

 

 

That said, i'd never download an .exe file from some random modder, there could by anything in that.. :huh:

 

Messy surprises? Yeah, that would be bad, but Trojan do make good condoms.

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remois

remois

Posted
Posted

Well if you have winrar you can always right clic and select open with winrar (it cover some but not all auto extractible), if it doesn't work you could also get uniextract which also take care of and then scan the directory you extracted to...

 

Some antivirus also feature sandboxing too... So you can't prevent risks totally, but there are ways to get a reasonnable security.

 

As for exe i can't think of much, true, but for fallout 3 there was cube experimental  ( http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/6270/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Ffallout3%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D6270&pUp=1 )

 

which is really an outstanding mod. Not as well integrated as pucemooses mods though. I think there was one or two for oblivion, but of that I'm not sure. There definitly was some for morrowind.

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Shadowhawk827

Shadowhawk827

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I can kinda see why a Nexus modder would be tempted to use .exe files. The sheer amount of computer illeterate people trying to mod their game of Skyrim has really supriced me, i mean, we're talking users who are baffled by the concept of dragging a file from one folder into another, and claim that such a thing is hi-tech witchcraft that they should not have to deal with. I wish that was hyperbole, but no.

 

I can only assume that Skyrim-modding was the gateway drug for many Console gamers to try their hand at the PC, which is nice to see, but it does come with a sideorder of issues apparently.

 

 

That said, i'd never download an .exe file from some random modder, there could by anything in that.. :huh:

 

Ain't that the truth...  ALL of it.  

 

And yeah I get a lil crazed on this issue, but it's just common sense to me,  I also wouldn't want to see the Nexus or this site taken down (figuratively) by some bozo ruining their reputations by posting several virus infested files.  Oh yeah, then there's having the IT degree means everybody I know comes running to me to fix their PC after they blow it up doing the kind of things I advise against here, AND TELL THEM NOT TO DO.

 

Reminds me of Boot Camp WAY back in 86.  We had a guy that screwed up so much that when the Drill Instructors asked him why he screwed up, he was required to answer "Sir, because the recruit is stupid, sir!".   Almost felt sorry for the guy, except he got all of us punished too. :P

 

Anyway, were a few of us hard on this guy from Russia, who apparently was legit?  Yeah.  You have to think about how things look to others though when you do things like that...  New account throwing up hurried recolors of generic items as several different mods and all as EXEs is going to look fishy.

 

OK, I'm rambling...   I'll shaddup now.  :D

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Guest endgameaddiction

Guest endgameaddiction

Posted
Posted

This staff handle any threats real serious. I saw a recent incident that happened with a racism mod that was taken down in a matter of 5mins or less. The person probably got a slap on the wrist for it. And his intentions may not have been much, but it's still offensive since this place and well pretty much all mod sites cater people across the globe and it's bound to be far more offensive to others than intended because of culture. So an archived containing an .exe will get reported real fast and taken care of. And I'm sure people who do those type of threats are not given a slap on the wrist.

 

Luckily, we haven't (that I know of) had any incidents regarding threats as such. I have to guess it's because this place does possess a more neutral ambient the way a community is intended. Unlike other places where you are guilty and condemned to deathrow for accidently dropping a candy wrapper. Figuratively speaking ofc. But you know what I mean.

 

Though, it's still nice to be informative. Not everyone has the same knowledge about such things. Especially when a victim does fall for a trap. Last thing we need is for people to have a terrible experience with downloading mods and running away only to have that bitter taste in their mouth.

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Cynical Misanthrope

Cynical Misanthrope

Posted
Posted

I have actually been a victim of being retarded myself many years ago. I had downloaded a hacking tool for Killing Floor, and this was even from a trusted hacker/trainer maker, so I didn't really think to much about it since I had downloaded other stuff from him, and never had any problems. But out of the blue he had decided to become an asshole, and this KF hacking tool fucked up my PC in no time, so only option available was to format my PC.

 

But in a way, it didn't matter much, since my PC was newly formatted anyway, so there was no real harm done per say.

But after this incident I decided from that moment on, I would always check and scan my downloads.

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Shadowhawk827

Shadowhawk827

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If you can't put it in English, it's not worth responding to.

 

Putting it in Cyrillic however, I assume you're offended by my pointing out that a big percentage of cyber crime originates in Russia.  Sorry bub, that's just reality.  The majority of Russians are great people, but I am going to be taking an extra look at anything .EXE coming from Russia.

 

Center for Strategic and International Studies report on cyber crime in Russia

 

You can pull up similar reports from dozens of other organizations.  So hating on me is like a redneck hating on people for saying the Confederate flag stands for racism.  THEY are the ones that let it get co-opted by jackasses like the Klan. 

 

 

Now that I'm completely done for good with that "discussion"...   Given a few posts about not knowing that are legitimate points, here's a few links for those of you who are interested in reading up a bit on Internet Security:  :)

 

Institute for  Security Technologies Studies (ISTS)

 

FBI Cyber Crimes Unit Homepage

 

Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center

 

SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security - SANS Institute

 

 

And before anybody reacts wrongly, I'm not saying anyone HAS to go there and study up.  I'm putting it out there as an available resource for those who want to learn.

 

If you pick one site, hit the SANS one.  It's the organization that pretty much sets the standards for IT security.  Their professional certifications are worth their weight in gold too.  More than that, they have an amazing database of info and you can sign up for a newsletter on security threats.   SANS is good enough that I'm not even going to bother posting the other 10 or so links to other security related sites.

 

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Rayblue

Rayblue

Posted
Posted

I can kinda see why a Nexus modder would be tempted to use .exe files. The sheer amount of computer illeterate people trying to mod their game of Skyrim has really supriced me, i mean, we're talking users who are baffled by the concept of dragging a file from one folder into another, and claim that such a thing is hi-tech witchcraft that they should not have to deal with. I wish that was hyperbole, but no.

 

One prominent example is a certain ENB preset that is often being compared to others; that preset doesn't teach newcomers on how and where to get information to install, configure and use presets properly. Personally, "push-button" modding ticks me off.

 

Going back to topic, all that's being done to give the average user a nightmare is that the goons behind the scheme are Bitcoin greedheads (still also fucking hate this funny money) -- they can't just resist to do another squeeze so that they could get that new Veyron off the dealer's floor. Or shittons of premium basketball sneakers they're not going to wear but for display.

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Alman

Alman

Posted
Posted

Just a heads up, out of assumption a  malicious .exe would possibly be a RAT (Remote Administration Tool) to pull you into a botnet. Many people using RAT tools will most likely use a crypter alongside their file. What a crypter will do is change up the coding of the RAT making it undetectable to Anti-Virus systems (Atleast, good crypting software will).

 

So I'd just throw it out there that just because your Anti-Virus says its clean could be deceiving. The best way to protect yourself is do what OP says and stay away from suspicious uploaders and files.

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