Dissapointed that you include spyware in your distributions

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Dissapointed that you include spyware in your distributions

(16 posts) (7 voices)

Started 18 years ago by markh
Latest reply from brucehjohnson

markh
Member

Been following your site and service for a few weeks and was looking forward to benefiting from it - until today when I went to install the 1st app I tried from your site and found ESELLERATE malware embedded in the setup.exe for the "cute reminder" install. Luckily, BOCLEAN caught it before it could be installed -

I don't think BOCLEAN found a false positive by the way...

I personally find this very deceptive and shady business practices - sad. Unless you can explain this away, I urge everyone using your site to think twice...

Regards,
Mark.

Posted 18 years ago #
DanW
Member

I have just run a search on the program with the following apps:

*avast! antivirus
*Spyware Terminator
*Windows Defender
*Spybot Search & Destroy
*Ad-Aware SE

And did not find anything. It seems that you may have a false positive.

Posted 18 years ago #
triphammer
Member

Add Webroot's Spy Sweeper and Lava Soft's Adaware to that list (found nothing). I also ran Avast and found nothing.

Posted 18 years ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

Also add Spybot Search & Destroy.

Posted 18 years ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

Sorry for double post:

I've never heard of BOCLEAN. I searched for it and found it though. I've never seen anyone say ANYTHING about it before. You might want to think twice about using BOCLEAN.

Posted 18 years ago #
markh
Member

Zeck,

BOCLEAN is a widely known and repected tool from a very ligitamate firm. Most security professionals use it themselves.

http://www.nsclean.com/boclean.html

You can go to the Wilders Security Forums and see what a following it has amongst people who deal with software security for a living, so it is actually prudent to use it. Go check it out at Wilders or even DSL-Security.

Nevertheless, maybe it was in fact a false positive. I subsequently scanned the files then at virusscan.jotti.org as well as virustotal.com and they came up clean.

I think I will install on my vmware machine first to play around with it.

Thanks for the replies.
Mark.

Posted 18 years ago #
markh
Member

Actually I spoke too fast - the program setup.exe for "cute reminder" DOES have esellerate malware in it and BOCLEAN flagging it as such was correct. To see it, rename the setup.exe it places in your temp directory to setup.txt, then search for the string "esell" in the file - you will find:

http://esellerate.net
Software\eSellerate\Affiliates\
http://store.eSellerate.net/s.asp?cmd=BUY&s=y&h=2WNF06&SKURefNum=SKU5964302158&AffIDC=AFLTESTOK
eSellerate1
eSellerate0
http://www.esellerate.net

Doesn't look too good to me - I would like to see some response on this from the people here running the site and see why they do this and do not disclose it.

Posted 18 years ago #
markh
Member

To sum up, even though BOCLEAN finds and flags the esellerate code in the setup executable, my question is why is it there? Since the install along with the activation will produce a fully-licensed instance of the application, what then is esellerate included for?

I know esellerate is a legitimate company, but if it is in the install of a product which we know will be fully registered, then I can only assume it could possibly be there to later attempt to "upsell" the user to an advanced version of the app? If so I think that is generally considered "a bad thing" when not disclosed to the user upfront. Also, I do not know what kind of info the esellerate component(s) might transmit to some server without my knowledge...

It's these types of questions that bugged me when I saw BOCLEAN flag esellerate within the setup when it would have been nice to see that openly disclosed in the EULA during install.

Probably enough said on this by now by me - I'll wait to see if anyone from the company wants to weigh in.

Regards,
Mark.

Posted 18 years ago #
DanW
Member

Have you tried scanning the setup file from the people who make CuteReminder? It may be bundled by the creators, and not the GOTD people.

Posted 18 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

I'll contact the authors to find out why is it here.
And, by the way, we do not use any personal information collectors ourselves, we simply do not need your personal information.

Posted 18 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

Ok I just checked myself - that's not a spyware, that's just a purchase link to CuteReminder stored inside the software.

Posted 18 years ago #
markh
Member

Dan,

That was a good thought - I just did that after I read your response and yes, it is included in the developers distribution.

Admin -> Thanks - I appreciate your response. While I believe you (and now checked and congfirmed) that it is on "their" end and not included by the GOTD people, the fact that Boclean flagged it was something I needed to consider (again it is quite a good scanner but like anything else can produce a false positive)....

So I retract my statements about shady business practices and thank you for checking on this. I guess the only question I am left with is how do you guys scan (if you do) the software you decide to feature, for malware etc.?

Regards,
Mark.

Posted 18 years ago #
Giveaway of the Day project team
Key Master

I have 2 scanners, and I scan all incoming files, our tech manager runs another scanner (not the same as mine) to check files again.

Posted 18 years ago #
markh
Member

Sounds good - thanks very much. I will contact the people at BoClean to see why they categorize esellerate as malware, but thanks for clearing the issue up and putting my concerns to rest.

Again, I officially retract my comments related to your company/site and malware :)

Regards,
Mark.

Posted 18 years ago #
piscote49
Member

I've been following these Posts out of curiosity (my scanners haven't found any spyware on the GOTD offered software that I have downloaded).

I have been favorably impressed with the comments made by all the members & the Admin of GOTD.

It is good to visit & learn from a serious forum.

Thanks to all of you for your comments.

Posted 18 years ago #
brucehjohnson
Member

I must say, "This is the best forum post thread I have seen on the net. Very professional and courteous and business-like. No heat, just solid factual, informative discussion with sharp focus on the subject at hand. I am proud to be a member of Giveawayoftheday. Kudos to the administrative staff.

Posted 18 years ago #

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