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If I create a folder named nul (or con, prn,etc) which are DOS reserved names, I will not be able to edit (or modify or delete) files inside it directly. So my doubt is that, if the PC is infected with a worm (or virus or trojan), will it be able to infect the .exe files inside the folder since most of them just add extra scripts to the existing files. Thanks in advance

Dave
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Jack
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    A worm doesn't do this! [Differences between Worms, Trojans, Virus's etc](http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp) – Dave Sep 18 '12 at 11:04
  • @DaveRook: sorry about that but basically my doubt is whether malwares can access these files in the null folder – Jack Sep 18 '12 at 11:06
  • Relying on bugs (documented or not, put there on purpose or not) in the OS to protect you against software that exploits bugs in the OS, to do harm. I don't think it will work. – ctrl-alt-delor Sep 18 '12 at 11:21

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Malware running in your user context can do virtually everything you can do. And you are able to access/modify/delete such a folder as well as its contents. All you need to do is prepend the absolute path with \\.\ (e.g. \\.\C:\Temp\con).

Ansgar Wiechers
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