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[–] facevalue 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Do you have a link to an article detailing the release or anything?

If the release is a "hard drive" then it could contain any number of malicious things. If it is an image of a drive then just mounting it could cause harm.

Best bet would be to copy the data to a freshly provisioned computer that has nothing on it but a fresh OS install and whatever applications required to access the data. Make sure this isolated computer has no internet or network connection or wifi capability. View the data as you like, then wipe the drive when you're done. This will prevent 99.9% of possible negative effects.

Regarding tracking, there will be obtainable proof of your posessing/accessing the data the instant you download it.

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[–] neverobey [S] ago 

thank you very much. I was talking about this.

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[–] the_sharpest_knife ago 

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[–] facevalue 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

VMs can certainly be used for convenient sandboxing and isolation but in the past there have been exploits that provided processes on the VM access to the physical hardware and host OS. I assume that similar vulnerabilities are known but remain unpublished today. Of course I'm going full blown tinfoil hat here - using a VM in this scenario would probably be fine.

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[–] 9386230? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

If it is a virus in there, it is probably undetected.