What end users are working with arbitrary files that they don’t know the identif...

wongarsu · 2024-02-16T11:34:53.000000Z

File managers that render preview images. Even detecting which software to open the file with when you click it.

Of course on Windows the convention is to use the file extension, but on other platforms the convention is to look at the file contents

michaelmior · 2024-02-16T13:51:40.000000Z

> on other platforms the convention is to look at the file contents

MacOS (that is, Finder) also looks at the extension. That has also been the case with any file manager I've used on Linux distros that I can recall.

jdiff · 2024-02-16T14:19:05.000000Z

You might be surprised. Rename your Photo.JPG as Photo.PNG and you'll still get a perfectly fine thumbnail. The extension is a hint, but it isn't definitive, especially when you start downloading from the web.

r0ze-at-hn · 2024-02-16T10:02:31.000000Z

Browsers often need to guess a file type

michaelt · 2024-02-16T09:24:01.000000Z

Theoretically? Anyone running a virus scanner.

Of course, it's arguably unlikely a virus scanner would opt for an ML-based approach, as they specifically need to be robust against adversarial inputs.

michaelmior · 2024-02-16T13:53:44.000000Z

> it's arguably unlikely a virus scanner would opt for an ML-based approach

Several major players such as Norton, McAfee, and Symantec all at least claim to use AI/ML in their antivirus products.

scq · 2024-02-16T10:57:27.000000Z

You'd be surprised what an AV scanner would do.

https://twitter.com/taviso/status/732365178872856577