Security?

**Fluffy Balrog** · January 21, 2012, 03:30 PM

Hello all
Mods and Submods seem to be very popular and more and more mods, submods and modders appear.
What about security? If people download an installation file of a new promising sub mod, lots of them would most likely ignore a notificaton from their firewall etc. and just click on install. I think for more or less skilled hackers it would be terribly easy to spread malware of some kind under such conditions. Especially such kind of malware which does not unveal itself in short time, like spyware etc.
Is there any security check for downloads on this site?

**Ekaddon** · January 21, 2012, 03:43 PM

Well usually the mods posted are made by "reliable" people on the forum. There will be weeks months or years worth of posts and threads before anything is released.

**TNZ** · January 21, 2012, 05:01 PM

Fluffy Balrog: Yes, that theoretically possible, but I would be very surprised if anyone was foolish enough to install a mod without first scanning the files with their own security package. That's why it's so important to keep your security package up-to-date.

**Pinkie Pie** · January 21, 2012, 05:17 PM

Nah, lets all download every single mod and sub-mod without scanning them just for funzies

**Ngugi** · January 21, 2012, 05:25 PM

Have never heard about anybody faced that problem here, ever. Not saying that it can't happen, just that most modders seems decently honorable.
Otherwise I assume you aint dumb enough to make the effort of a mod and share it for free anyway

**milosh** · January 21, 2012, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by Fluffy Balrog

Hello all
Mods and Submods seem to be very popular and more and more mods, submods and modders appear.
What about security? If people download an installation file of a new promising sub mod, lots of them would most likely ignore a notificaton from their firewall etc. and just click on install. I think for more or less skilled hackers it would be terribly easy to spread malware of some kind under such conditions. Especially such kind of malware which does not unveal itself in short time, like spyware etc.
Is there any security check for downloads on this site?

That's why you always use Sandboxie.

**Fluffy Balrog** · January 22, 2012, 06:32 AM

Of course one should always scan files he/she downloaded from the internet. And yes, I also think that most modders are honrable, friendly people who would never plan evil deeds apart from conquering and enslaving middle earth and the hobbits.

But scanning files with ordinary antivirus software has its limits, especially when it comes to .exe setup files. Personally I started to use Virtual Box to run games and downloads, which is a pretty sure thing because in worst case you can still delete your virtual machine and everything is fine, but I think only a very small percentage of users do that or something similar.

**EllEzDee** · January 22, 2012, 01:27 AM

They're commonly just texture files and .txt files. I highly doubt a "moderately skilled" hacker can find a way of turning those file types into something malicious. Of course, for auto-installing .exe files, there's always a risk; common sense is the obvious solution. As was said, mods go through a massive development process relying on user-feedback. So if a newly-registered user suddenly posted a mod, it'd be clearly fishy. On top of this, even if they did manage to get a number of users to download such files, any modern anti-virus software would be able to prevent such files -- created by "moderately skilled hackers" -- from causing any malicious damage to the system, and the file would be quickly reported.
So unless some kind of expert hacker is lurking these boards, i think we're all safe...

**Mhaedros** · January 22, 2012, 01:31 AM

This is one of the reasons I hate .exe files. With usual rar, zip files you can always search through before installing, but you need programs to search exe files

**Gigan** · January 22, 2012, 04:52 AM

97 percent of the population have never heard of the TW series, don't think this is a problem, I also dont think a "hacker" would go out of his way to spread malicious files on a website about a game series that hes never heard of. Unless hes an absolute dickhole

**Pinkie Pie** · January 22, 2012, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by Soul of Doom

97 percent of the population have never heard of the TW series, don't think this is a problem, I also dont think a "hacker" would go out of his way to spread malicious files on a website about a game series that hes never heard of. Unless hes an absolute dickhole

New to the interent eh? The majority of viruses are create by morons who are not actualy trying to steal your private informatiom but are simply trying to screw with your day.

**MasterBigAb** · January 22, 2012, 10:46 AM

Ok well we talked about it a little, I personally don't think there is any greater risk with TW mods

Anyways, if you wanna continue talking about security of mod downlaods, you have to move such discussion to another place, some general discussion for example, not the Third Age section.

Closed