this is *not* a virus

~snip~ link removed ~ Blackspear

if anything, it helps to prevent virus and other malware from the dangerous 'serial/crack' websites which one might otherwise trawl if one was indeed searching for a serial number or crack for a program.

IMO an antivirus company should not be allowed to abuse their power by denying access to software that they do not like. Will they soon be classifying and denying access to competitors products also?

Thoughts, anybody?

 

Screenshot.

Blackspear.

 

yep.. that's the point of this discussion

 

Sorry, maybe I need to be a bit more to the point. It's a false positive. There is nothing virus or malware about this application, it is a peice of software which obtains cracks from the crack websites for you and downloads them directly.

Obviously this sort of tool would be frowned upon and disliked by commercial software publishers, but this does not make it a virus. They should not be abusing their power by denying people access to the file just because they do not like it.

 

Well we will have to wait for Happy Bytes to advise us further on this one, simply posting such a link is not allowed, we don't wish the curious with inadequate security to become infected.

Cheers

Blackspear.

 

Fair enough, I understand your cautiousness.

 

I'd be wary because a lot of so called applications/software from shadey websites that deal with cracks/hacks and warez, can have a bad payload inside them.

NOD is probably wary too.

 

well the TOS actually says links to warez sites, which i would take to mean websites about warez. NOD32 only seems to have started picking this up since version 2.5. I'll just have to create a folder for this thing and exclude that folder from AMON. It is irritating though and I still don't think it's ethically correct.

 

How is it ethically correct to use a tool to find illegal cracks for software?

Blackspear.

 

ethically, one should be allowed to do whatever one wants as long as it doesn't impact on others. One should not specifically go out of ones way to disrupt or interfere with another persons activities. Now I realise obtaining cracks can be seen as impacting on others, but I cannot tell you the number of times I have gone to an old Windows 98 machine and had to reinstall Windows, only to find that they don't have a product-key (we're talking 7yr old machines here).

This is just one example of a possible legitimate use. Besides that, people *will* look for cracks. Would we rather they go to the sites listed on astalavista.box.sk and get infected with malware which then tried to pass itself onto everybody elses computer, or would we rather just let them get on with it safely, with cracksearcher.exe?

please excuse all the "ones" it just seemed easier to say that way

 

This is a very good point, one which I hadn't considered. However, it is not the job of NOD32 anti-virus program to do this. That is what Websense and SurfControl are for.

it seems to.. I can't run it here. There's no 'ignore' option on the AMON alert window.
I wonder if disabling "Adware/Spyware/Riskware" in the AMON options would work. I don't want any adware or spyware on here though, although I haven't had any infection-attempts in many years, touch-wood. Safe-Hex indeed.

 

I doubt the employees who make a living from the sale of the warezed software would agree that they aren't impacted.

 

i did cover that one..

 

Wouldn't something like this, which I understand is legal, help with that particular problem (prior to instigating the reinstall obviously)?

 

it would on a working system, yes. I do indeed use this to see if a customers WinXP is using one of the blacklisted keys.

 

I couldn't help myself Blackspear, that was priceless.

 

there is no "we" in "would we rather they go to sites..." - because obviously my opinion differs to yours - I say let their machines get fried and infected with the pox... if they can't work out their protection and get slimed in the process, does THAT impact anyone else negatively? Should we care that someone might get infected looking for a dodgy license who doesn't have the wherewithall to protect their machine from the malware abounding on such sites.

7 year old licenses - heard of ebay? 7 y/o software when it can be found online is DIRT cheap!

 

i read over at the 'other antivirus' forum that jotti runs on linux and the nod32 option for finding 'potentially dangerous applications' isnt available, which is why nod32 doesnt always identify 'threats' that some of the others do. this could be why it isnt identified there, or as you say it may be out of date defs - i've seen that be the case before too.

not so true with the new version of NOD32 (2.5) which is putting itself forward as more of an anti-malware app than an anti-virus app. see how it now identifies 'Threats' rather than 'Viruses'.

yeah try that, but it may just be the 'Potentially Dangerous Applications' option that needs unticking. It isnt selected by default in a new install.

 

You're missing the point - it's when their computers get full of malware which then spams OTHER PEOPLES computers, that's when it starts impacting on others.

Mate when it's 8:30pm and you've just popped into a customers office to get something setup for the next morning, say migrating a server, and you have to go round all the workstations and then when you've just told the harrasing girlfriend that you're leaving in 5 minutes and this shitty 98 machine completely barfs on you... you ain't gonna be going on eBay for a product-key are ya.

 

By the same token, in a commercial setting, you're not going to potentially leave your clients legally exposed by placing cracked versions of software on their machines, are ya?

Sure, maybe the client is licensed for the software, but between the time the illegal application keys are flagged and the licensing details are sorted out, your clients reputation has already suffered. It is simply not appropriate to cut corners like this working on a clients machine.

Blue