email dangerous, or just attatchments?

[thebigdintx]

anyone know if viruses and other malware like spyware, worms, and trojan horses are able to be spread by just email alone, or would they have to be included in an attatchment that one would have to open or save to their computer? i was just wondering because everyone always forwards all these "cute" or "funny" emails around, and i was wondering if it was safe for me to open them. i'm thinking that emails are only capable of spreading such malware in the attatchments, but i haven't been able to find any reliable info yet.

 

[Computer Head]

Usually a virus is transmitted through email and may only infect via a link to an external website or through an attachment. E-mails themselves generally don't come with viruses that infect just from opening the e-mail.

EDIT: Post 2666, oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[The[J]oker]

I'm pretty sure they cannot be transmitted through the email itself. It's just plain text and unless they can automatically open the attachment then you can't get it from just viewing the email.

 

[thebigdintx]

yeah, i kind of figured that someone would be safe if they only viewed email in plain text, but what about the email programs that read HTML? wouldn't that open up some vulnerabilities?

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

yeah, i kind of figured that someone would be safe if they only viewed email in plain text, but what about the email programs that read HTML? wouldn't that open up some vulnerabilities?

Once in a blue moon a vulnerability is found which can infect a user with a virus or something. Been a while since I have heard of it though..

 

[root]

assuming that you view HTML emails then essentially what you're being sent is a plain text email with an HTML attachment.

HTML attachments are pretty much just the same as a web page and thus vulnerable to the same HTML nasties that web pages are. which is why there are updates to secure the HTML reader in all HTML email readers, (outlook, outlook express, Thunderbird, eudora etc..)

as far as I know, no virus has ever been written to exploit a plain text email reader.