What Is This File And What Should I Do?

[jimras]

I did my regular virus scan today and it said that I had a file called "gzip" and that it was a decompression bomb.

I use Avast. I tried to have the program delete it and it couldn't. It couldn't move it, either.

It says that the file is in a directory called c:\users\jim\appdata........firefox\gzip and I could not find it using Windows Explorer

I am running Vista Home Premium with all updates current.

What is this file? Do I have to worry about it? How do I get rid of it if it IS a problem.

Thanks

Edited July 16, 2009 by jimras

[cherokeechief]

it is a gnu compression program.

you can find info here, http://www.google.com/search?client=safari...-8&oe=UTF-8

[jimras]

Yeah, I get that---what is a compression bomb and should I be concerned?

[jcl]

Yeah, I get that---what is a compression bomb and should I be concerned?

If I'm not mistaken, a decompression bomb is a file that decompresses into an effectively infinite amount of data.

[jimras]

So.....is this something that I need to get rid of, and how would I do that?

I can't see it in Explorer.....Avast couldn't delete it or move it......

[TheTerrorist_75]

Read this thread at the Avast forums. Avast is just telling you you do have compressed files. gzip is legit.

avast! 4.x Home/Pro > What is a decompression bomb

[jimras]

Thank, TT.....you have me feel a whole lot better.

[jcl]

Wait a second. If I'm reading the original post correctly, there was a hidden directory named "gzip" directly under %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\. So... what is that directory? AFAIK Firefox doesn't use %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\ for anything except profiles and crash reports and doesn't hide directories at all. The directory doesn't exist on either of the machines I've checked.

[davidmichaels]

Compression is a process which reduces the number of bits requires representing data. In order to understand it in a more simplified way, consider the following example: 1111511115511115551111 (22 characters)

The above example is consist of 22 characters. While reading the series, you can analyse that 1111 repeat many times. This repetition of the process also known as statistical redundancy.

You may notice that while using files compressing software’s like WinRAR and WinZip, you will find that sometimes the data compresses hardly and sometimes compression reduces the data in a smooth manner.

These compression software’s analyses the data and deduct the pattern through statistical redundancy technique in order to represent data in smallest bits space possible.

In order to protect your system from decompression bomb you can’t do much to prevent yourself from being decompression bombed. Here are some precautions that you can take to protect your system from zipping or decompression bomb in the most possible way:

• Protect your system from decompression bomb is to always scan downloaded files especially if the files are in compressed form.
• Avoid to unzipping a 2KB file.
• Use authentic and reputable antivirus software’s.
• Always use those websites to download items and files which are trusted by you and avoid to download from non-trusted files.
  
  Hope it helps