Warning over free online file converters that actually install malware (www.malwarebytes.com)
from kid@sh.itjust.works to cybersecurity@sh.itjust.works on 17 Mar 17:31
https://sh.itjust.works/post/34607086

#cybersecurity

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Gullible@sh.itjust.works on 17 Mar 17:58 next collapse

I always wondered what their deal was. They always had the scammiest looking urls. I assumed it was malware or spam ads, but I never stuck around long enough to find out.

otter@lemmy.ca on 17 Mar 18:27 collapse

The legitimate ones could charge for large files / batch processing

As for which ones are legitimate and which ones are malware, ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world on 17 Mar 18:07 collapse

Does anyone have a list of safe file converters to use, then?

9point6@lemmy.world on 17 Mar 18:08 next collapse

What are you trying to convert? Generally shoving “open source software” on the end of the search query will get you something legit

ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world on 17 Mar 18:24 next collapse

I figured it would just be good to get a list of safe options going, since the post is about unsafe options

9point6@lemmy.world on 17 Mar 18:30 collapse

Fair play!

If you need to convert audio or video, ffmpeg is your man

If you need to convert a document pandoc is what you need

If you need to convert an image, imagemagick

If you need to “convert” some online media into local media, yt-dlp

Can’t think of another use case that people would regularly be converting off the top of my head, but happy to fill in any gaps if there are any

taladar@sh.itjust.works on 17 Mar 23:12 collapse

Convert image to text (OCR) tesseract.

otter@lemmy.ca on 17 Mar 18:26 collapse

In this case the advantage is that you don’t need to download anything, and I’ll admit that I used websites like this years ago

For example, PNG to ICO, or PDF to Word, when people don’t have a tool installed and they look up how to do it, these websites pop up and it feels very convenient.

Maybe there is a utility that can be self hosted for this. Something like StirlingPDF but for all kinds of files

github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF

kernelle@0d.gs on 17 Mar 22:17 collapse

+1 for StirlingPDF, amazing tool. I use Handbrake for video conversion and Gimp for images. IT-tools for text based conversions, but it does many other things too and can be self hosted.

AugustWest@lemm.ee on 17 Mar 18:30 collapse

Pandoc perhaps. But it depends on what you are converting right?

Edit: Added link pandoc.org