Yesterday, you might have read some stories from other sites regarding problems with downloaded Minecraft: Java Edition skins, with concerns that this could lead to viruses on your computer.
We are now able to solve the issue, but we wanted to let you know what happened and what we have done to safeguard our community.
Any Minecraft: Java Edition player can upload their personal skin in the widely used PNG format to our website at minecraft.net and this will be displayed on their character in the game. PNG files can contain metadata. This includes information about the tool that created it, the date it was made and who made it. This meant that PNG files could be created with code within this inert section of the skin file. This code could be created but not read or run by the game.
While your antivirus program may detect this code and warn you of its presence, the code will not be capable of running on its own. Your antivirus software will be able to stop any attempt to run the code even if it's in the file.