Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by givepause 1867 days ago
They only host PDFs and EPUBs, so there's no software involved.
2 comments

While I think it’s incorrect to assume PDFs cannot be exploited, I’m using computer viruses as a metaphor. What if a legit chemistry paper was tampered with such that the procedure creates and explosively releases a nerve agent and a cheap grad student that didn’t pay for the legal copy unknowingly follows it?
> What if a legit chemistry paper was tampered with such that the procedure creates and explosively releases a nerve agent and a cheap grad student that didn’t pay for the legal copy unknowingly follows it?

That grad student is visited by representatives from the military-industrial complex and is quickly drafted to doing that again. Imagine creating nerve agents by accident, what a breakthrough!

Both the PDF and EPUB formats allow embedding programs within them. The risk of malware is remote but real.