Viruses must adapt to the microenvironments of their hosts’ cells in order to establish infection often “hijacking” the machinery of host cells to serve their own purposes. Many types of mammalian host cells release exosomes (small vesicles containing various molecules) to communicate with neighboring cells. but how viruses exploit exosomes remains unclear. To learn more, researchers recently screened Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) proteins in exosomes that might promote infection. They identified the protein BGLF2, which normally exists in the viral tegument, through several screening strategies. Tegument proteins are typically released from viruses after they enter the host cell cytoplasm to mediate infectivity, supporting an infection-driving role of exosomal BGLF2. Additional in vitro experiments revealed that BGLF2-containing exosomes enhanced viral gene expression and suppressed host innate immunity. Although the mechanism needs to be confirmed, the findings show that exosome-encapsulated BGLF2 is released by EBV-infected cells to facilitate further infection, suggesting that tegument proteins can support viral infection both from within viruses themselves and from within extra-viral particles like exosomes.