Hi, I am completely newbie, i dont know anything about programming. not even basics. i have found many different scripts on BHW to download. i am not sure that i should use them or not. are they safe to use ? is there any risk involved like website being a slave or information stealing, etc please reply ur views
When you are using a pirated script or software you always have risk. With a php script, if there is malicious code your entire website can be owned by the guy who added the code. That's the risk you have to take when you don't want to pay for the script. At BHW, the mods take great care to ensure that you get the clean files with madatory virus scans and by regularly keeping an eye on the members. However it is your responsibility to make sure the script/software is clean. if you are too much worried, then buy the php script from the original author.
If you get those codes elsewhere, we can't sure that your site is safe or at risk. But if you download it from BHW, the moderators do some virus scanning of the codes before they allow to published it here publicly. Meanwhile you should have the original and clean back-up of your site before inserting alien codes.
might be a stupid question but how the antiviruses can catch the code that is just a text or numbers ?
Well, just run the file through a virus scanner and ensure everything is okay. I wouldn't use an encoded script, so if the script is not encoded, just take a look through or have someone look through it for malicious code.
not all infected code is picked up by virus scanners, manual checking is always best. BHW is a safe community, the mods react quickly to reported/flagged content to protect members. As said, there is always a level of risk with shared/nulled code if the source is not totally known. The best thing to do if you're unsure is ask, taking a small hit of a delay waiting for a reply before using a script/plugin/theme is far better than losing your site content or other damage from infected material. Si
