Viewing email on iPhone and preview of attachments with regards to virus/malware

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Level 1

8 points

Viewing email on iPhone and preview of attachments with regards to virus/malware

I recently opened an email on my iPhone. Many times when you open an email on an Macbook, iPad or iPhone it will show you a preview or a snapshot of what is in the attachment. For instance, if a photo is attached to the email, it will show you the photo without you opening the attachment, or what is in a Word Document.

I did not click open the attachment, but when I opened the email itself, it had in the body of the email about 3 pages worth of random letters and numbers, starting with "DQo8IUPRQ1...". It looked to be a .txt file (but I understand other types of files can be made to look like a .txt file)

Again, I did not open the attachment, but the fact that the "information" from the attachment showed in the body of the email, it makes me very nervous about a virus or malware being on my iPhone or iPad.

Can you explain if you need to specifically open the attachment of an email for a virus/malware to take place? Is there any harm from just opening an email that has a virus attached to it and seeing the contents of the file in the body of the email?

Little panicked, so thanks in advance for your help!

Posted on Oct 11, 2014 10:02 AM

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Answer 1

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,601 points

Oct 11, 2014 10:05 AM in response to kevinMcc9

If your device is not jailbroken, there is no way to introduce a virus/malware to the phone. Did you receive this email from a known sender? It is possible a particular attachment was not converted correctly when sent with their particular email client. This can happen at times with Outlook and certain types of attachments and using SSL. It can come across as a MIME attachment and cannot be read correctly with the iPhone. If it did not come from a reputable source, I would just delete it and move on.

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Answer 2

kevinMcc9 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 11, 2014 10:08 AM in response to ChrisJ4203

Chris,

It was from an unknown sender. The email app i was using at the time was the Mailbox App (third party) if that makes a difference/opens me up for any additional threats. None of my products are jailbroken.

So it sounds like that even though there thousands of random letters and numbers in the body of the email, I am ok?

I appreciate your responses.

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Answer 3

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,601 points

Oct 11, 2014 12:35 PM in response to kevinMcc9

Yes, no problem. Just delete the mail.

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