Hacker News Reader

Would it be possible to hide an exploit or test in a Word doc or image? I suppose they could have planted the image there with some steganographic encryption, and if the author was clever enough to find another link and click it, he would alert authorities to that fact?

This sounds farfetched when I write it out.

View on HN

I would reuse an already existing files on the hard drive to do that instead of adding a new one.

By adding a new file, it piques curiosity, or triggers communication to the person in the photo to let them know that they're on to them.

Plausible line of thought.

I was thinking about this too but, at least in my case, would make me doubt about it.

Its common to use Word macros to install malware.

Though in this case mitigated by the split between .docx (macro-less) documents and .docm (macro-enabled).

Either file type can also be unzipped and have their contents inspected for anything suspicious.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com