I've never used Kerio but I had read some good things here about it especially that it didn't use too many resources. A friend asked for a very light firewall and I told her about Kerio. She downloaded it and said that AdAware said that it contained Ezula as well as other stuff that "hid" itself even after she tried to remove Kerio. She removed Kerio due to the spyware issue. Any truth to this from you Kerio users? Thanks.
First, which version of Kerio are you talking about, the classic 2.1.4 or the current version 3? Next, you need to find out exactly where she downloaded it from. This link is a DIRECT DOWNLOAD of Kerio PFW v.2.1.4 (link) and should be safe. That kit was from Kerio's site and was built in April 2002. If there was spyware in Kerio it would not be recommended at any security sites.
I downloaded the free version 2.1.4 from http://www.kerio.com/kpf_download.html. Before I installed it I updated Spybot and ran a scan. I also downloaded and installed Spyware Guard. Then I installed Kerio, no messages from Spyware Guard, did another Spybot scan and nothing new that wasn't there before. So, she must have gotten it from somewhere else. I'll ask and report back here because this could be important if someone is putting crap in legitimate security tools like this. Thanks.
That can happen unfortunately. Whenever possible it is best to download from the original providers site or their approved mirrors. Too often people do a Google search or similar, and go grab the file they want from whatever site is fastest for them to click on. That can be dangerous. I like sites that provide a list of approved mirrors for downloading, and even then I'm selective about which mirror I use.