Videogames

[YellowFox]

As a PC gamer there have been a few questions I've been meaning to ask and I've really had no where else to ask them. I play a few free to play games and one in particular is mainly focused on online play with someone being a host and people joining them. I've wanted to ask would it be possible for someone to spread a virus that way? And also how does this host thing work?

Fox.

[Aventador]

If your speaking of Minecraft then the answer is yes. Malware attacks can happen anywhere at anytime. Thats why its best to keep a clean system image handy.

[ComputerRepairTech]

As a PC gamer there have been a few questions I've been meaning to ask and I've really had no where else to ask them. I play a few free to play games and one in particular is mainly focused on online play with someone being a host and people joining them. I've wanted to ask would it be possible for someone to spread a virus that way? And also how does this host thing work?

Fox.

Its only possible if the code of the game has some security vulnerability that would allow someone to transfer and execute malicious code.  (well..of course its possible the game author intended to distribute malware you never know) but anyway if you are asking because you joined someones game and suddenly got a virus then yeah its possible.

If you are asking because you are concerned about the potential of getting a virus I wouldnt worry about it.  if I had a fresh virus that wasnt being detected by AV's that I wanted to infect people with I wouldnt waste my time exploiting a game to distribute it....unless something about that game has some sort of high value to me like an in game currency that you can transfer.  Still wouldn't worry about it.

[Aventador]

You can use Emet and add the game to it to prevent an exploit.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458544

[polonus]

Also could use free ExploitShield from ZeroVulnerabilityLabs. Testing it and it blocked 8 exploit attempts so far.
Download from http://www.zerovulnerabilitylabs.com/home/exploitshield/ -> http://www.zerovulnerabilitylabs.com/download/ExploitShield-Setup.exe

polonus

[Aventador]

ExploitShield only protects your browser for home users. Emet is made by Microsoft and you can add any exe to it to protect against exploits. Adding your browser, games, Java and Flash for starters.