how do viruses spread themselves?

[dekelc]

hello,

I wanted to know, how do viruses spread themselves?

thanks

[Valleysboy1978]

Most are through emails, and some idiot user opening them.

Very few viruses actually spread on their own volition. Why did you want to know?

[Dave Sell]

hello,
I wanted to know, how do viruses spread themselves?
thanks

Viri that spread themselves are known as worms. A traditional virus can not spread itself without human intervention.

[NoteMe]

Viri that spread themselves are known as worms. A traditional virus can not spread itself without human intervention.

As long as it is running it can.



And everytime a hacker/cracker kid finds a new exploit on your machine they can actualy make virus starts it self, like when they found that loophole in Outlook.

Other indirectly self running viruses was the one that cought Opera, and the one infecting the jpg part of GDI.




ØØ

[Ideas Man]

Depends on what they are, how they are created and the exploits they target. Worms like the Slammer worm attacked a buffer in SQL Server, and used SQL server to spread the virus to other SQL servers, some email ones just use your email server to send copies of itself from you to everybody in your contact list, others include their own SMTP server, so they can send emails on their own.

[whothis]

Think of a virus like a flee, scratch scratch,it can jump from anywhere .cds floppies etc. in fact virus-is are worst than raBBITS when it comes down to spreading.yes we created a monster The Fleabit.

[Rocky_Lad]

Some can spread using outlook even if the user doesnt open them.....dont ask me how though

[dglienna]

the preview window when macros are turned on.

[Ideas Man]

Embedded HTML and Javascript code that executes as the email is "run" (read, displayed). However, this should be less of an issue I would think because by default, this type of stuff should be disabled.

[BodwadUK]

They can also spread via shared folders on Networks or through IIS etc