Can a virus infect or damage files inside rar or iso files ?
I mean a rar or iso with clean content.

Keep in mind that almost anything is possible, given enough time, motiviation, and resources, but my short answer is a "qualified" no.

A virus would have to "unrar" the file, find some infectable code, infect it, and then "rar" the file(s) again, writing over it on the media. That is asking for a lot, and there are easier ways to infect a file. It would be just about impossible if the rar file was password protected. It would be just as difficult to infect a clean, already-created iso file. The virus would have to have iso-editing code. However, I suppose someone could figure out how to prepend or append infected code to either type of file.

Regards,

it is possible! it happend at our compony few months ago. rar files were infected. seems to be a tricky thing to do, but as i said totally possible.

Was the virus contained in a file in the rar format, or did it actually infect a "good" file in the rar format? If it infected a "good" file in the rar format, how do you know it was good? Finally, did you submit a copy of the virus file to an AV (maybe Clam)? They could certainly use it either way!

Regards,

Hello! Yes it can happen! But when the virus is in the WINRAR before he can be active you must click on him. If you do not click you can not be affected. Regards

Yes, I think it's possible. It happened to one of my friends last year.

Virus can certainly damage rar files. But I think iso files are safe from online viruses also.