Is Utorrent a virus?

Kappy wrote:

I further tested and found that if you were NOT a registered member of MU then some software was included in an installer wrapper. This malware was not installed without my knowledge.

That's because you are alert and aware of the issue, and are looking for the problem. All adware comes wrapped in such installers these days. You've seen how many people on these forums are affected by adware.

A subsequent test showed that if you first registered for a membership in MU - FREE or paid - none of your downloads would be in an installer wrapper that included malware.

Not true. A free MacUpdate account does not protect you from the adware installers. Only a paid MacUpdate account will prevent you from seeing them when downloading from MacUpdate. I've tested this personally with a free MacUpdate account.

No evidence of any of this was identified such as other users testing and reporting whether my above statement is true or false.

I guess you didn't read any of the comments at the end of my article. You also don't know what kind of testing went on. In point of fact, several other folks at Malwarebytes found the same results that I did while I was researching for the article, and afterwards, members of a small malware discussion group I mentioned it to also found the same results. If you'd like to see what some other folks found on the topic, here you go:

DANGER! MacUpdate.com Is Now Foisting Adware

http://mac-security.blogspot.com/2015/11/updating-list-of-macupdate-adware.html

http://www.macnn.com/articles/15/11/20/optional.additional.installs.app.discover y.at.forefront.of.changes.131375/

As you can see, this problem is quite far from "unsubstantiated."

I do believe that even were you to agree with me, Davis would continue to post his crap in an effort to drive away other helpers who are unpleased with his insulting arrogance.

Kappy, you know I would never side with Linc without a very good reason. I'm not going to argue with you any further about this, but if you continue to post MacUpdate links and argue with Linc on this topic, this time it will be you who is wrong. You'll be feeding Linc exactly what he needs to attack you, and though he may not be right about the way he does it, his facts will be right. I'd hate to see that happen just because you don't want to admit he's right.

Hello Sarah:

I would like to comment on your question: is uTorrent malware?

uTorrent as such is not malware

the installer might contain malware or not, depending from where you download it (that is clear from the discussion 😁)

There is however a very important reason not to use uTorrent: it broadcasts some information, to the sites you use to download with torrents,;

you should also answer yourself this question: why would a site, where you can download (with a torrent) for free what costs money at the official site, do this?? The earning model is very suspect: it does not stop at earning money by heaving ads on the site.

I just downloaded SMCfancontrol v2.5.2 directly from http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol/download

It downloaded smcFancontrol installer.dmg

without doing anything else with it I ran it in Virustotal https://www.virustotal.com/en/

it found FIVE infections.

so far for Macupdate...

Lex

Lex,

It would be helpful to try signing up for a free membership. Sign in and then re--download the same software. I just did the download which came in as a ZIP archive - no installer wrapper - smcfancontrol_2_5_233647. I then read it through Virustotal via your link. Zero infections were discovered. (Note that the file is not listed in the MU list as a .dmg file but a ZIP archive.)

When i download from MU I always select the Download button from the page that appears when you click on the file's name from the list of files that first appears. The next page usually has a button labeled Download. Do not use the install button. This will initiate the download after a 3 second pause.

I would be curious to know if get a different result than I get because I do not get any .dmg installer wrapper.

Tom,

We can leave this in the "agree to disagree" file drawer because I don't wish to offend you nor have we gone through this entire matter thoroughly as you have pointed out to me. I have substantiated that one can download from MU safely. I even repeated Lex's test with opposite results. And, I can repeat the results, so far, for all the software I have downloaded from MU. If my hypothesis is valid, then anyone should get similar results repeating what I've done. If that proves true then Davis is promulgating untested lies in an effort to discredit me personally.

<Edited by Host>

Hello Veteran,

I know that you have to have a membership or the MU updater/installer, to stay out of trouble. The point is that their trustworthiness disappeared suddenly some time ago (stevejobsfan is still not fully over it, like many of us). They also do nt warn you.

And thus it may just happen again when they want to make even more money by letting their mode of operation fall further again. I was used to look there for updates regularly, I still do, but I don't download anything at all anymore.

Today I had a few moments to do it and see what would happen and downloaded just one (picked by chance), and it was infected. It is not difficult to open the DMG installer and install only the safe app, but I think that a "normal" user must be warned, I agree with Thomas on that. We also warn about download.com, CNET, Softonic , etcetera, who changed their earning model already much longer ago. It is not important how bad they are, it is important that they are bad and can not be trusted anymore.

Lex

Well, I think we need to leave this as it is. We know how to stay out of trouble and that MU can deliver software that is trouble-free. It also provides a link to the developer's site if one prefers downloading directly rather than through MU.

It's unfortunate that there are no trusted download sites. You cannot even trust a developer's site or the App Store, both of which could purvey infected software because you cannot always trust developers and Apple's checking of App Store software leaves a lot to be desired. But then this is essentially true of anything you get from the Internet. Even encyclopedias are full of errors - roughly 1/3 of the content is false or mis-stated whether from the Internet or in-print volumes. You can't even trust Wikipedia.

<Edited by Host>

"It's unfortunate that there are no trusted download sites. You cannot even trust a developer's site or the App Store, both of which could purvey infected software because you cannot always trust developers and Apple's checking of App Store software leaves a lot to be desired"

indeed, I agree absolutely. Anecdote: even Macpaw has several apps in the Appstore, although until now they are not infected.

"You can't even trust Wikipedia", absolutely correct. Anecdote: someone in the Dutch Royal Family has tried to change pages about her, because the truth was not very good.... Anecdote 2: in several countries (a.o. CH and NL) the people that check and correct the content are advertising for money because they have too much to do.... And it will be worse...

Have a wonderful 2016,

Lex

Lex,

Same to you. Enjoyed the discussions.

I guess that as information reliability degrades we'll become less and less informed by sound like geniuses. But in reality we become more ignorant. It's a shame. We can't even argue when we are so uninformed. 😁