Careful with unknown SVGs :-(

A friend ran across SVGs being used to transfer malicious code. There was an article about it last November so it’s not new, new, but still.

The article: Phishing emails increasingly use SVG attachments to evade detection

So, as per all email spam warnings, don’t open an SVG if you don’t know who it’s coming from - and it’s not a surprise. Even if the file name is ThatPerfectDesignYou’veBeenLookingFor.svg.

At least for now, if you can look at the code behind the .svg you’ll see it doesn’t contain any data except a website pointer but that’s not something I’ve ever done. Opening it in a text editor like Notepad would do it.

Or there are programs like the one linked here:
https://community.glowforge.com/t/another-interesting-svg-viewer-editor-debugger/

Anyway, whee.

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Thank you for sharing, I had not heard of this!

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I only open SVG files from here in GF or from a few I regularly buy from. But this is great info. Thanks for sharing it, as I don’t remember seeing it in November.

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Oh, no!

This is good info, thanks for sharing it!

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@deirdrebeth thanks for the heads up.

It is incredible the ingenuity and resourcefulness used for evil purposes.
If only these individuals put a fraction of that effort for good purposes…

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Sounds like a good reason to learn to make your own designs…

It’s not as hard as many think, even I can do it! :slight_smile:

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Reminds me of the clipart malware from back in the desktop publishing days. There was postscript code that would execute when printed and change the password on your laser printer.

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As someone in the cyber security field, it’s always recommended you get files from a known source, those sketchy free sites are pretty bad and sometimes even Etsy can also be bad so reviewing the other order reviews someone has on their page may be useful when making a purchase

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Thanks for threads up!

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Making your own designs is part of the joy (or frustration) of the journey with your :glowforge: and it boosts you creativity and develops your abilities.

However somtimes we haven´t cultivated the talent to do so, or don´t have enough time, or simply what others have made is just what we need, hence the need to always be careful of the source of whatever we download from the internet.

And of course with the new features of AI generated images and designs, all you need to do is feed a very specific and detailed prompt of what you are looking for, and you just might get a winning design.

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