Safety of opening .txt files [closed]

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If I'm given a URL that points to a .txt file, is it always safe to open it? Can it possibly contain virus or malicious content?

Answer 1

A genuine txt-file can contain virus code but it cannot be executed, so it's totally safe. However, a file can use double file extension like this, so watch out:

a-virus-file.txt.exe

Windows hides by default .exe because it's a known file type.

Answer 2

It is not safe to rely solely on a file extension. The real file type can easily be masked by someone changing the extension, so the file could easily be a virus or malicious content.

For example:

MyVirus.exe -> SeeminglyHarmlessFile.txt