What are the potential security risks of offering a pure .exe download for installation?

Potential security risks of offering a pure .exe download for installation include the risk of malware or viruses being unknowingly downloaded and executed on the user's system. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to provide a more secure installation method, such as using a digital signature to verify the authenticity of the executable file. 

// Example code snippet for verifying digital signature of executable file
$publicKey = 'public_key.pem';
$signature = 'file_signature.sig';
$exeFile = 'installer.exe';

$verified = openssl_verify(file_get_contents($exeFile), file_get_contents($signature), file_get_contents($publicKey));

if ($verified == 1) {
    // Proceed with installation
} else {
    // Display error message and do not proceed with installation
}

Keywords

security risks .exe download installation PHP vulnerabilities

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