john.doe Posted September 25, 2017 Report Posted September 25, 2017 ADS stands for Alternate Data Stream. It is a file attribute only found on the NTFS file system. ADS is the lesser known feature of Windows NTFS file system which provides the ability to put data into existing files and folders without affecting their functionality and size. It is used legitimately by Windows and other applications to store additional information (for example summary information) for the file. Even 'Internet Explorer' adds the stream named 'Zone.Identifier' to every file downloaded from the internet. ADS have been given a bad reputation because their capability to hide data from us on our own computer, has been abused by malware writers in the past. More info: Technet Microsoft Blog Malware Bytes Blog on ADS ADS on rootkitanalytics.com More on NTFS Tool to identify ADS on Windows Systems: ADS-Revealer Stay safe! 3 Quote
