Be careful of Real Media files downloaded from the Internet

Recently, I had some friends complain about problems with Real Media files (*.rm/*.rmvb). According to them, after downloading and playing rmvb files, the Real Media Player launched a malicious webpage without prompting. Later, they noticed their OS running noticeably slower. And later still, they found their IM account passwords modified and online gaming accounts stolen.

It appears that the media files they downloaded were created by a hacker and designed to open malicious webpages. I investigated this and found it is quite easy to add a malicious webpage to rmvb files. The hacker used freely available software. These programs include applications which can be used to add events to rmvb files. A time and URL is specified in a text file, then imported into the rmvb file using these programs, and that’s it!. When the rmvb file is opened in RealPlayer, the URL will automatically be opened after the specified time has elapsed. My advice was to scan any downloaded media files with antivirus software before playing it. Another option is to use a different player other than RealPlayer.

Hope you can enjoy Real Media without the malicious webpages!!!