Virustotal downloading files

My question here is; how safe is it to upload personal files, could they get exposed to someone beside owner of VirusTotal? Paid subscribes to virustotal can download files uploaded by others. If you consider this still safe for your users depends on what you consider safe. See also their Privacy Policy which clearly says:. Information we share When you submit a file to VirusTotal for scanning, we may store it and share it with the anti-malware and security industry Files, URLs, comments and any other content submitted to or shared within VirusTotal may also be included in premium private services offered by VirusTotal to the anti malware and ICT security industry.

Still, I think that your idea of offering a simpler access to a useful service directly from the mail client makes sense. I would though recommend that you add an easy to understand but not easy to ignore warning about the privacy implications before the user uploads a file. And it might be less invasive to first check if the hash already exists at VT before uploading a file and not upload if hash is known to VT.

Ideally you also make it easy for users to remove an accidentally shared file thanks to Mirsad for this suggestion in a comment. I wouldn't recommend uploading files containing any sensitive information. Passwords, personal notes or other forms of data that can identify you as a person or expose your privacy. As Steffen mentioned in his answer, the files can be downloaded by premium users, meaning that the files and its contents will be available to other individuals.

Usually, reading the privacy policy of the website helps you grasp the general concept of what they are going to do with the data. Virustotal Premium allows downloading files and "hunting" - which involves writing YARA rules to match the files from everything that has been uploaded to VT e.

I can search for files that have a string "private", get alerted every time such file is uploaded to VT and download them myself. Having the Premium service is very common for security teams and companies. Also as already mentioned, the information is shared with other communities. So if there's a risk that private documents could be uploaded, I wouldn't implement this feature. First, read this article thoroughly: Security Firm Accused of Exposing Terabytes of Customer Data , it tells you why you should not make the same mistake.

The rule of thumb of using VirusTotal to protect own file privacy is to send a sha hash to the database. Also, one should subscribe to prominent antivirus "business edition" that will scan the file using localized virus scanning engine. Everyone on the route can see it. If it's not encrypted they can read it. If it is encrypted they might be able to decrypt it. If VT has a rogue employee or they get hacked then your Data can be exposed.

Never let private information go out if you want to keep it to yourself. Similarly don't put anything on your Phone, take it somewhere expecting not to lose it, and then lose it and all your Passwords, Photos, Banking Info, etc.

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Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. VirusTotal doesn't offer regular users to download files at all. It's a free service for people to upload suspicious files and have them scanned by several antivirus softwares at once. Downloading submitted samples is possible, but only for individuals vetted by VirusTotal. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How can i download a file from virustotal for free? Asked 5 years, 1 month ago. Active 3 years, 11 months ago. Viewed 33k times. Improve this question. Sunil Sunil 31 1 1 gold badge 1 1 silver badge 3 3 bronze badges.