Do you want to send MP3 songs and videos by gmail ? Or want to attach software executables (.exe) to your gmail email ? Read this guide.When you send and receive attachments with GMail, they're auto scanned for viruses. If Gmail thinks your mail has viruses, it will attempt to clean the file or remove it. But if it detects a virus and can't remove it, then you won't be able to download it.
Thanks to the new GMail Anti Virus Scanner, you cannot send or receive emails with exe, dll, ocx, com or bat attachments even if they are sent in a zipped (.zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, .gz) format (The .rar format is still allowed)
GMail has some the best spam filtering and phishing detection capabilities but the GMail virus scanning is a bit disappointing. When I tried to email a Firefox 1.5 installer to a colleague, GMail uploaded the entire file (Firefox Setup 1.5.exe 4.98 MB) and then threw this alert:
This is an executable file. For security reasons, Gmail does not allow you to send this type of file.
This is such a poor solution. GMail Virus Scanner didn't scan the attachment, it just blocked it since it was an exe file. Why is Google calling it an AntiVirus scanner when it is merely blocking attachments of certain types like .exe? Yahoo! webmail too have an anti-virus but they accept .exe files since the yahoo anti-virus would scan even exe files and clean them if found infected.
Secondly, why did GMail upload the entire exe file to its server for scanning but didn't scan since it was an exe.? The GMail file uploader should be smart enough to disallow users from uploading files with extensions like exe, com, ocx, etc.
Google has no plans to make the "limited" antivirus feature optional, nor does it plan to stop blocking executables. Yahoo! Mail uses Symantec software to scan for viruses. Hotmail licenses its technology from Trend Micro. Google isn’t saying which vendor is providing the antivirus technology.
Since you cannot Turn Off GMail Anti Virus Scanning, you can use these GMail hacks to send program file (exe), virus samples and other blocked formats with GMail:
Technique 1. Use a free file hosing online service like Rapidshare, Megaupload or Yousendit to upload your file and send the link of the uploaded file in your GMail message.
2. Rename the file: Change the file extension to fool the GMail scanner. The new attachment could contain instructions making it easier for the recepient to derive the actuall attachment type. For instance,
Rename Adobe-Reader.exe to Adobe-Reader.exe.removeme
3. If you have lot of exe files to send, put them in a zip file and change the extension of the zip file as mentioned in the previous step. Remember that GMail denies zip attachments that contain exe files. Pass-Protection won't work either since GMail can examine exe filenames even in password protected zipped files as the archived filename listings are not encrypted by the Zip program.
4. Use a different compression software like WinRAR which compresses files in .rar format. GMail is currently not scanning or blocking .rar filetypes. But there is a high probability that GMail might support rar formats in future. In that case, you can consider splitting the rar files and attaching them separately (like .r1, .r2..)
Important: I would recommend only the first technique since all others violate Google policies and Google could even terminate your GMail account.
Sending Virus infected files with GMail: Yes, it is against the GMail TOS to send viruses in email but occasionally, we need to mail an infected file for reporting purposes to an antivirus vendor. Like the Symantec Security Response center encourages users to submit virus samples for analysis. You can use any of the above techniques to bypass the virus scanner and attach infected files in your emails.
Now that limited virus scanning is in, we can expect GMail to move quickly out of the beta once the GCal (Google Calendar) application is available. The Google Calendar domain is already live.
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/12/cheat-gmail-antivirus-scanner-attach.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Gmail blocked sending .exe files even before their "New" virus scanner came up. And yes, it even blocked zip files with the exe files inside before. So if they are not scanning the files even now, I don't know what's new about the "new" scanner. Anyway, this is what they say their virus scanner does...
Written on 4/12/05 8:45 PM
> And why did GMail upload the entire exe
> file when it had a forbidden attachment?
They allowed uploading of the entire file because of the nature of HTTP uploads. Once the upload starts, there is little the browser or server can do to gracefully stop it. In most cases the script (like php) doesn't get executed until after apache has dealt with the file and stored it in a temp location.
I do agree with you though, there are a lot of legitimate reasons to send executable files via email and gmail should scan them properly instead of just forbidding them.
Written on 6/12/05 3:34 AM
i hear that gmail anti-virus is provided by brightmail (recently acquired by symantec).
Written on 6/12/05 4:40 AM
it is really gud .thaks 2 amit 4 dis hoping 2 see soon such things in future from amit
Written on 6/12/05 2:32 AM
One trick to send anything: zip the file tou want to send, then create a new password-protected zipfile and add the first file to it. They'll never know what you're sending.
Written on 7/12/05 1:03 PM
Yeah, don't bash the new virus scanner just yet... the heavyhanded filetype recognition thing has been in place for at least a year.
Written on 7/12/05 1:58 AM
You're actually wrong. Google's antivirus actually does scan for viruses, attachment blocker or not, in both ZIP and RAR archives. I did some tests here that you should probably check out.
Written on 8/12/05 12:36 AM
You also can't send attachments with VB code in them, like Access databases.
Written on 13/12/05 3:54 AM
Even if Google adds RAR detection some day, one have an option to encrypt filenames as well as content while creating RAR archive. So, Google will be unable to detect filetypes inside.
Written on 15/12/05 5:29 AM
Adding the executable to a zip file and creating a second password protected zip file also fails.
If they cannot scan the inside zip file because the outside zip file is password protected, it is rejected as well.
Is privacy illegal in GMail?
Written on 2/9/06 10:14 PM
I like to rename the file to filename.virus, works every time.
Written on 12/9/06 1:01 AM
i rename the .exe file to .pdf and it works fine :)
Written on 25/11/06 7:49 PM
.7z files currently slip by their filter, regardless of the filetypes it contains.
Written on 8/12/06 3:30 AM
WELL, the Firefox extension, Gmail Space, that looks almost like an FTP client, and you can send whatever file you like to your gmail account, and can be filterred easily so the files dont clutter up your inbox.
Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1593/
There is also a program called GmailDrive for windows that integrated into the filemanager and is shows as a drive in My Computer.
Link: http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
I must say, both stay within the bounday of the 10MB file attachment limit, but thay CAN be split and uploaded that way.
I hope I helped, Peace out.
Written on 28/1/07 3:01 AM
You could just stick the file in a word or powerpoint file too! Thats how I store my printer drivers on my Gmail account!
Written on 13/5/07 2:41 AM
plz give me a solution ..
in my system orkut is banned without my knowledge.. i don't no y?
if i enter orkut in adress box..imedietly the window close.informin" orkut is banned fool,administrator didn't write this program guess who did this?"
Written on 19/5/07 10:56 AM
Hi Friend,
This is happening due to a virus that most probably entered into your system by USB Drive. Anyway ... follow the given steps to remove the virus
1. Boot your system in Safe Mode with Command Prompt mode.
2. Open Command Window .... Type CMD in the RUN window.
3. Give the following commands now
a. CD\
B. CD HEAP41A
C. ATTRIB -R SVCHOST.EXE
D. DEL *.*
4. Now open the Task Window .... Press Ctrl+Shift+ESC
5. Select the Process Tab.
6. Arrange the list according to the Processes.
7. Search for SVCHOST
You will see several SVCHOST are running in your system.
8. Delete all the SVCHOST processes from your system.
Restart your system in normal mode.
Probalbly, now you will be able to open ORKUT, YOUTUBE abd MOZILLA as well.
Try your luck.....
Have a good day.....
Written on 31/5/07 9:23 AM
Hey buddy Krishna ... Thanks for the tip ... Helped me very much ... By the way do u know the name of the virus ...
Written on 17/7/07 9:06 PM
Very odd....I just tried emailing a student in my workgroup a zip file containing some txt files, .bak files (which are simple plaintext), jpg, mdb, plk, and psafe3....
Well, lo and behold Gmail seems to be filtering them...
Well, I removed the password from the "archive" - and the attachment was able to send......
With the archive passworded, it wouldn't send...
Written on 31/10/07 9:12 PM