Superantispyware Free is new always better?

Here's a thing - always willing to try new things especially if others have used them, I downloaded and ran Superantispyware Free from a safe site (snapfiles or cnet can't recall which).

Ran it on full scan and after over an hour it had found 8 tracking cookies. I aborted the fix and I decided to experiment and ran my old faithful Lavasoft Personal SE - this time I selected just Quick Scan.

Much to my alarm within 10 minutes it had found:

1 registry key (windows vulerability)
8 registry values (Alexa)
7 files
16 critical files were infected.

See my post https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=175835 for how I believe I became infected.

I hope I am not making any snap judgements, but after that I fear SAS Free is not for me, personally I think I'll stick with what I've got ie Spybot, A-squared and Lavasoft SE.............

I may be wrong, but I am a bit concerned that the Superantispyware download itself might have contained malware - though I can't be 100% sure of that. That said my system was clean of Alexa two days ago and must have only just become infected today. I didn't boot up yesterday. Lavasoft SE has checked my whole system and it's clear, but I'll run A-squared and Spybot just to be sure.

I suppose it's just an object lesson not to depend on one on demand scanner.

As the infection regarded IE I am relieved I now use Firefox 2.0. with Macaffe Site Advisor.

Alexa may have been responsible for me not being able to install AvastHome...?

 

Were the critical files cookies? Or something more real?

And I seriously doubt that Alexa would prevent installation of AV software.

 

I would be really interested to see AdAware's log, since I consider SAS a fair replacement for both AdAware and Spybot and SAS claims to detect and remove eg Alexa Toolbar and etc.

 

SUPERAntiSpyware contains NO malware or any other software for that matter. What exactly was found?

 

Is new always better?
In the case of new releases of SAS free,yes new is better.
I trust SAS free and A-Squared free.

 

Hi bahjan:

Or possibly it was some FP's from your other scanner. I think that Adaware is a good program but I did have some problems with it identifying functions of legitimate programs as windows vulnerabilities. It always flagged Spywareblaster's homepage protection for instance. Whether SAS is for you is your decision, but suggesting it contains malware is going to be a hard sell on this forum. And speaking about FP's, I do not recall getting one from SAS.

 

It is generally recommended to download files from the manufacturers site. I have no problem with SAS and Avast on my machine. Cnet and or downloaddotcom have been known to have some infected files. Always scan anything you download before running or executing the files. I hope this helps.

Cheers, innerpeace

 

Good advise. Also doesn't hurt to scan all downloaded files b4 installing with
VirusTotal,just for 30 or so second opions.

 

Here's the Ad-aware SE Log:
ArchiveData(auto-quarantine- 2007-05-27 15-24-41.bckp)
Referencefile : SE1R172 22.05.2007
======================================================

MRU LIST
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[0]=MRU RegReference : software\microsoft\directdraw\mostrecentapplication name
obj[1]=MRU RegReference : .DEFAULT\software\microsoft\internet explorer download directory
obj[2]=MRU RegReference : .DEFAULT\software\microsoft\internet explorer\typedurls
obj[3]=MRU RegReference : .DEFAULT\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\doc find spec mru
obj[31]=MRU RegReference : .DEFAULT\software\realnetworks\realplayer\6.0\preferences\LastLoginTime

ALEXA
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[5]=Regkey : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}
obj[6]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "MenuStatusBar"
obj[7]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "Script"
obj[8]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "clsid"
obj[9]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "Icon"
obj[10]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "HotIcon"
obj[11]=RegValue : software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a} "ButtonText"
obj[12]=RegValue : .DEFAULT\software\microsoft\internet explorer\extensions\cmdmapping "{c95fe080-8f5d-11d2-a20b-00aa003c157a}"

WINDOWS
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[13]=RegData : .DEFAULT\software\policies\microsoft\internet explorer\control panel "Homepage"

TRACKING COOKIE
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[14]=IECache Entry : Cookie:default@unicast.com/
obj[15]=IECache Entry : Cookie:default@~~local~~/
obj[16]=IECache Entry : Cookie:default@revsci.net/
obj[17]=IECache Entry : Cookie:default@adopt.euroclick.com/
obj[18]=IECache Entry : Cookie:default@com.com/
obj[19]=IECache Entry : Cookie:anyuser@com.com/
obj[20]=IECache Entry : Cookie:default@kontera.com/

Superantispyware found only the cookies after over an hour of scanning.

 

Both fair comment - I will bear in mind comment by innerspace re cnet. I trust opinions posted here. Didn't mean to offend by appearring to finger point at SAS In fact, I think I might try it again.....cheers.

 

Thank You for posting the log, it is as I suspected, "the Microsoft's malware".
That Windows vulnerability seems to be a locked homepage, I guess leading to MSN.
MRU is the feature of Windows, which can be disabled, like recent documents and ect.
By the way, you can set CCleaner to run at startup, it will clean cookies except exceptions.
If I had to choose, I would keep A2 & SAS, they will do much more than AdAware & Spybot.

 

A2 has the added benefit of right click scanning of files. Great for checking downloads.

 

Those items are not spyware, nor harmful - that's why SUPERAntiSpyware did not flag them....

 

SUPERAntiSpyware also allows you to right-click scan any file and/or folder.

 

Ad-Aware is hardly a program you want to trust for accurate results and it is always been notorious for false positives as well as targetting COMPLETELY LEGITIMATE security programs, like SpyBot, and in my case Script Sentry.

Mu advice to anyone, untill if ever it gets bought out by a more conscienous and reliabe group, STAY VERY FAR AWAY FROM IT. I know what i'm talking about, I was MOD/Specialist there at their forums and had access to internal dealings with staff/research development enough, although i won't go into any of that out of respect for the NDA agreements which may not be binding anymore on me but i still do out of common courtesy exercise ethics where concerns privacy amongst product distributors and their secrets.

AD-AWARE per say Lavasoft have a lot of internal issues revolving around their practices and have a tendency for taking out some of those frustrations on those closest to them as well as not seriously addressing product problem concerns. Right now i consider it only a relic of the past and not anywhere up to the levels of modern day detections required by users.

 

Hello Nick, is this feature only for the Pro version or for the Free one as well?

 

No offense taken . I'm just passing on what little knowledge I have gained in my journey to keep a safe system. For what it's worth, I even scanned SuperAntiSpyware after downloading it. I have a license for adaware and have not used it. I was thinking of giving it to my sister for her machine to replace Windows Defender, but I'm not sure I would be helping her or not.

Cheers, innerpeace

 

Although I'm not Nick, the answer is both as long as they're running in the background.

innerpeace, skip giving AAW Pro to your sister and give her SUPERAntiSpyware instead. Windows Defender is on the same level as AAW and very ineffective.

 

EliteKiller, I agree Lol. I'm still hoping the new version of Ad-aware will be stronger. I ran WD myself for awhile and was fine, but my habits are way different than her and her 2 kids. They need a resident "Battleship".

 

It's in the Free and the Professional.

 

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True it's very handy - glad it is to be found in new version of SAS Free - but I hope I will not have to disable it. I had to do so with A-squared using little utility called shelexview (from snapfiles.com), as leaving it enabled constantly crashed Explorer. Now I get no warnings from Fixit utilities 4.0 Crashguard - I am keeping a-squared for the moment as I like it, and you can still scan individual files via 'Custom Scan' a bit more fiddly but at least nothing crashes.

For more details on third party shell problems and shelexview see http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techfiles/explorer-crashes.html

Anyone else found this a problem in a-squared? Any one suggest a fix - mind you, if SAS Free file scan more is stable, I'll just use that....

 

We have had no reports of problems with our right-click scanning.

 

Thanks to EliteKiller and SUPERAntispy for your replies.

 

I can report I have not had any problems with Explorer crashes or right click scanning either. I can also report I am a convert and can answer my own question - Yes, SAS is better than older programmes!

 

I would say in the case of SuperAntiSpyware. Yes! After some hassles with a-squared and Adaware exe's that continue to run after shutting down the programs, the latest version of SuperAntiSpyware is back on my PC and I like it. The GUI is a lot better now and it doesn't leave any processes running after I shut it down unlike the other two programs that are no longer installed. I did notice however that the pause feature would work on Complete Scan, but didn't seem to work on Quick Scan. Is this normal? If not I'm sure Nick will soon provide a "quick" fix for the Quick Scan Pause problem. Sorry I couldn't resist.