Antivirus for AVR ?

[vnmathur57]

I sometimes used to play music files stored on a USB through my Yamaha AVR. A few days back I used the same USB stick in my office computer and to my horror, I found that it was infected with a variety of viruses ( .ini, .inf, trz etc). My office peaple cleaned the USB and reformatted it. Now I'm worried whether this USB has already infected the AVR, TV, player, also. If so, how to protect these equipments if an infected USB stick is ever used by mistake. Shall be grateful for a reply.

 

[Santy]

I am not a tech guy but I think a virus will affect only what it is programmed to. I don't know if there is a virus that attacks "firmware" of some electronic equipment like AVR ( I have heard about bios virus). If such an event happens, I guess it is much easier to reset the device (to its factory settings) unlike a computer taken down by a virus.

 

[venkatcr]

Go through a process to eliminate possibilities.

1. Get a clean stick drive. Preferably format it and scan for virus.
2. Load a few movies and music on it.
3. Disconnect your AVR from the Net (if connected)
4. Power off and power on the AVR.
4. Use the stick on the AVR for some time.
5. Check the stick on your laptop or PC. If it again shows .inf, .ini. .trz files, these are created by the AVR to index the files. These are not virus but scanners will return a false positive signal.

The best will be to keep a separate stick drive for use with the AVR.

Cheers

 

[Vijay_s]

Heartbleed? Security flaw from Heartbleed bug could reach beyond websites to digital devices - The Economic Times

 

[kneo]

Heartbleed may come into the picture during the firmware update process (if done online). I am not sure it would have any role in the process of playing media through the device. I think the OP is using the memory stick on other devices too apart from playing media on the AVR. The AVR should be safe as IMHO there are no known instances of AVRs being infected by a virus on USB stick.

 

[spirovious]

Some one already posted in forum(another thread) that chances of making Firmware corrupt are very very less.So shouldn't be an issue.Else Antivirus would have been in market like we get for mobile.

 

[vnmathur57]

Feeling easy now! Thanks to all.
@kneo- The memory stick is being used on other PCs to load music/video files only. I am sure now that the source of the whole problem is songs.pk.

 

[kneo]

Don't worry much about it. Your AVR is safe. Just keep your PC/laptop updated with a good antivirus and malware protection.

 

[Nikhil]

Viruses typically attack Windows OS systems.
Apple/Mac much less ... Linux even less.

Firmware for devices like AVRs are much less likely to get affected.
Worst case scenario is for your firmware to get corrupted.
All you have to do is reinstall the firmware and you will be fine.