Are metadata/album covers from CD Ripper (PerfectMeta) and PerfectTunes safe to use?

[donp77]

I get concerned about using data from the Internet, especially when that data comes from random users and/or I have no clue how secure the data is. I know that malware can be embedded in images, but I don’t know how prevalent that is.

I have around 10,000 songs and would like to clean up these and their albums. How likely am I to get any malware by letting PerfectMeta and PerfectTunes clean up/download the metadata and cover art?

Thank you very much for your help!

[GBrown]

I get concerned about using data from the Internet, especially when that data comes from random users and/or I have no clue how secure the data is. I know that malware can be embedded in images, but I don’t know how prevalent that is.

I have around 10,000 songs and would like to clean up these and their albums. How likely am I to get any malware by letting PerfectMeta and PerfectTunes clean up/download the metadata and cover art?

I have never encountered this. But I suppose anything is possible. Really if you don't want to use online sources though, you will be manually typing in data for a long time to update 10k files.

[garym]

I have never encountered this. But I suppose anything is possible. Really if you don't want to use online sources though, you will be manually typing in data for a long time to update 10k files.

Likewise, I've used dbpa, perfecttunes, and other sources to create/update metadata and artwork on about 130,000 files and never had any computer virus issues.

[Spoon]

jpeg image files are downloaded, not programs which execute, whilst is is possible for a jpeg to try to crash the decoder and gain system access it is very unlikely, browsing any website and your system is exposed to 100's of jpeg or png files.

[donp77]

Thank you everyone for your help and reassurance! I've upgraded to the latest CD Ripper and have purchase PerfectTunes and am starting to merrily clean up my library.

[Dat Ei]

Graphic files like jpgs can contain malware (stegosploit). Since jpgs are not executable files, this kind of malware needs another software to misuse the security vulnerability of that software. Most of the rare known cases misuse flaws of web browsers. Since dBpa only looks for album art in web and offers links to download album arts from the web, nor dBpa is the source for those manipulated graphic files, neither is it responsible for the download of those. As long as the graphic files are only embedded within music files, the risk is very low.


Dat Ei