Why we filter wmv wma mov asf and similar

From PhexWiki

Phex includes a default filter hiding wmv wma mov asf and similar files, because those are files which can include an url which gets opened automatically (and in some cases even invisibly), when you open them.

If you don't like this, you can easily disable this filter in the Filter_System.

Reason

We want to make Phex halfway secure for our users (full security can't be archieved by the program, but only by the users themselves).

The files we hide can contain malware and are a risk to your private data protection.

To picture the risk we want to protect you from, just imagine an Evil Cracker Corp(tm). When you do a search, this Evil Crackers Corp(tm) could send you a false search reply containing a bad file. This bad file could send you to the Evil Crackers Website(tm), which then could launch an Evil Crackers Attack(tm) on your computer and save your connection details (and any personal information it can get) to sell them to the Evil Crackers Data Mining Center(tm). The Evil Crackers Data Mining Center(tm) could then search through your personal information and pass any useful information on to the Evil Crackers Income Generation Office(tm) which could use your data to generate an income for the Evil Crackers Corp(tm). And naturally that income would most likely come from your bank account; either directly by just taking the money or indirectly by selling your data to others.

We protect you from this kind of attack by not showing you the potentially bad files.

You can easily disable the filter, if you don't like it. We enable it by default, so new users (and those who don't want to have to worry too much about the files they download) get the minimum of protection we deem necessary.

Also we want to have sane default settings :)

Besides: Never open any .exe without checking it with a virus scanner first!

- Arne 09:34, 2 April 2007 (CEST)