Is it possible for media files such as ogg mp3 avi files to be infected with a virus?
 

I have a box running on winxp and wonder if the media files in there can catch viruses.

Thanks a lot!!

The filetypes you mention are inert files, not executables, so "infecting" them does not make any sense. (And since GNU/Linux does not share that type of problems with mcrsft the chance of catching something through GNU/Linux is practically speaking zero.) One other attack vector could be to embed code to create a buffer overflow in a player. If one obtains music from unofficial sources that avenue of attack is theoretically open to any platforms that have the targetted vulnerable music playing applications. Since most P2P communities are as much about the "many eyeballs" thing as the Linux kernel sourcecode is, I would consider the chance of finding any there that would target GNU/Linux practically speaking non-existent. Note I don't comment on the mcrsft side of things as I'm really not interested in that and this being the Linux Newbie forum.