can a solution file have a virus?

Question

_{Monday, October 12, 2015 10:33 AM}

I notice when I unzip a zip file containing a asp.net project, that a warning message comes up saying that the "solution file" might not be safe.  Since I hope to distribute a project of my own to various people, my question is: can solution files have code that compromise their security?  And if so, can an anti-virus check (Norton, McAffee, Windows Defender) - detect this?  Is there some way to manually look a a solution file (maybe with Notepad) to see if there are danger  sign?

Thanks,

All replies (2)

_{Monday, October 12, 2015 11:58 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Hi,

This is not really a direct answer to your question but :

When you unzip source code from internet, the files are marked unsafe by Windows).

To avoid that, before unzipping, just right click on your zip, properties, and uncheck the checkbox in the bottom of the window (I don't remember the text of this checkbox but you will find it). After that, unzip and open the sln. There won't be any message anymore (because you just told windows that this file is ok for you, you trust the source).

To answer your whole question, if there is a virus into your zip file, your antivirus will find it.

The protection you saw is there for potentially bad code that could harm your PC by executing the project from VS for example. You have to trust it.

_{Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:37 AM ✅Answered}

No, a solution (.sln) file itself can't be infected.

But a solution could contain executables that are run during the process of doing a build (for example, if an NMake project is part of the solution or there are custom build events, etc.).  Those could be infected.

Basically it's trying to tell you that running executable software that someone else has provided could result in you becoming infected.  Just be sure of your sources and review and understand what's running as part of the build process and you'll be fine.

-Noel