Can font files be dangerous

Can font files be dangerous
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Subject Author Date
Can font files be dangerous Zakko 01-16-2008
Posted by Sebastian G. on January 16, 2008, 7:46 pm
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Character wrote:


>> Does this mean some types of font file can be infected with malware?
>
> No, but I've accidentally created some otf fonts that, if
> double-clicked, for some inexplicable reason result in a BSOD (Blue
> Screen of Death)! No harm done, just very annoying.

Is your system up-to-date wrt. security updates? Did you install any
security relevant font management software?

If the answer to the first question is "yes" and to the second "no", you
should definitely report this issue to Microsoft.

Posted by Character on January 16, 2008, 8:16 pm
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Sebastian G. wrote:

> Character wrote:
>
>
>>> Does this mean some types of font file can be infected with malware?
>>
>>
>> No, but I've accidentally created some otf fonts that, if
>> double-clicked, for some inexplicable reason result in a BSOD (Blue
>> Screen of Death)! No harm done, just very annoying.
>
>
> Is your system up-to-date wrt. security updates? Did you install any
> security relevant font management software?
>
> If the answer to the first question is "yes" and to the second "no", you
> should definitely report this issue to Microsoft.

Yes, no, and I did :)

Posted by Larry A Barowski on January 17, 2008, 10:23 am
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> Zakko wrote:
> No, but I've accidentally created some otf fonts that, if double-clicked,
> for some inexplicable reason result in a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)! No
> harm done, just very annoying.

I've created buggy fonts that did that on Windows NT,
but they failed safely on XP. As I was writing hint code
directly, I knew the exact reason, but I can't recall what
it was.

I have accidentally put what, at certain resolutions, was
an infinite loop into a TTF hint. Some renderers will just
go ahead and loop infinitely if you do that.



Posted by Jim Watt on January 17, 2008, 2:21 pm
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>Some web sites talk about their fonts files as being clean or checked.
>
>Does this mean some types of font file can be infected with malware?

As far as I am aware websites do not load fonts onto your
computer, they just specify which ones they would like your
browser to use either in HTML or by way of a CSS file or
specification.
--
Jim Watt
http://www.gibnet.com

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