An .exe file is potentially dangerous because it's a program that can do anything (within the limits of Windows' User Account Control feature). Media files – like . JPEG images and . MP3 music files – are not dangerous because they can't contain code.

Can executable file contains virus?

An EXE infector can be memory resident and non-memory resident. Memory resident viruses stay active in memory, trap one or more system functions (usually interrupt 21h or Windows file system hooks) and infect files while they are accessed. Non-memory resident viruses search for EXE files on a hard disk and infect them.

Is an exe file high risk?

An executable file (exe file) is a computer file that contains an encoded sequence of instructions that the system can execute directly when the user clicks the file icon. ... Such files, which are considered to pose a high security risk, include EXE, BAT, COM, CMD, INF, IPA, OSX, PIF, RUN and WSH.