Interesting and frightening ad-aware development

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/60311

Broadbandreports is reporting that Ad-Aware removed detection for WhenU
adware with the last update. This is definitely a scary development, as
many scumware companies have recently been buying themselves out of being
detected by well-regarded anti-spyware programs. Ad-Aware has always been a
valuable tool to me for spyware removal, along with Spybot S&D, HijackThis!
and AntiSpyware...but if it turns out that lavasoft was "bought out", I will
have second thoughts about that statement.

There's currently a thread on their forums asking Lavasoft to
explain....this should be interesting -
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=58938

 

The original thread I posted somehow got removed. Lavasoft claims it was an
accident...I cerainly hope that is the case and they're not ignoring it.
Ongoing discussions at
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=59008 and
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,12665642~mode=flat~days=9999

 

I have personally removed spyware from my system that had a registery
key with Ad-Aware in it. Go figure. It's definitely not suprising.

 

Yup, IST can be a bitch to remove. I've found that a good strategy for
stuff like this is to run the scans in safe mode so that nothing is running
in the background to "re-spawn" the scumware.

And more good news is that Microsoft announced that Anti-spyware will be
free to all Windows users!
http://news.com.com/Windows+anti-spyware+to+come+free+of+charge/2100-7355_3-5577202.html

I'm usually very critical of MS, but this is a great move that should be
applauded.

 

True, but the program this is based on (Giant Anti-Spyware) was *not*
free...it just had a 15-day trial (might have been longer).

 

They could also make it like other spyware programs that only scan your
system in trial mode, but do nothing to remove the spyware until you
purchase the "full" version.

 

That seems awful nice of Microsoft. It is good pr on their part. They
know they are selling you software that cost top dollar and is full of
bugs and holes. That is like me selling you a car that is brand new,
knowing that it was flawed in the design phase, and giving you a
toolkit and hospital visits for free...............So, I sit here and
wonder.......When are people gonna' get the idea about open source
code?..........I paid 125 dollars for a copy of a program (xp) that is
resource intensive and needs other programs to keep it running properly
(more resources). I have to install more ram to get it up to full
potential. So, my 125$ operating system is up to almost two hundred
bucks now!....I get on the internet download a Linux Distro. , and have
all I had and more....for free. I do not even need extra ram. The 256 I
have is more than enough. Open source for me. I only do Microsoft to
get a job. I guess in a way thier spoty, high dollar products will mean
job security for A+ techs. So, maybe that is a good thing.

 

Doesn't anyone think that Monkeysoft isn't adding a boatload of code to this
proggie (Giant) in order to scan your reg for pirated OS and other info....
I trust nothing from Monkeysoft... As far as I'm concerned installing
MonkeySoft products on your computer for protection is like letting
the fox bunk with the chickens...

No way is this a good thing, Bill Gates has never done a thing that
wouldn't some how benefit him in the end....

Wise UP....

 

If you're not using a pirated copy of Windows there isn't a problem, is
there?
MS has a right to charge what they want for the use of their software. It's
what they do to feed the kiddies that they have.
Yeah they make a profit but we'd all like to do that.

AG

 

I'll have to give the Msft piece a try. But as I posted before (forgetting
to mention booting to safe mode, which is frequently essential) you often
have to remove these pieces of scum manually. I have it down to 5-6 hours,
including the research to identify all the files infecting your machine.
I've had to do it four times. Once (two removals) was from an inattentive
cruise through a bunch of shady sites. But once it was by following a
google link to a site that listed itself as a song lyric site. Most of
these are old school internet, i.e., put up by enthusiasts for the general
edification of the public. Some - or at least one - however, are put up by
scum trying to hijack other peoples' computers.

My feeling about these people? The bush admin would do the world a favor
(for once) if they identified these adware/spyware guys as terrorists, took
'em to gitmo, and tortured them to death.

Here's the contact info for the host of one of them (and the people that are
hosting these guys are the same as these guys):

Server4You, Inc.
which owns IP range 69.64.32.0 - 69.64.63.255
710 North Tucker Blvd
Suite 610, St. Louis, MO, 63101
phone number: +1-866-342-5749
and website at www.server4you.net,
abuse contact : Sascha Wintz at .

hope that's easy to scan for the spam crawlers.

 

Ok mines paid for so that's not really the prob...
I still think Monkeysoft will have an inherent interest in the info on your
system...
I haven't used SP2 and have had no ill effects... and I am religious about
my security... I use proven 3rd party software because I don't trust
Microsoft
to have my best interests in mind...

Personally if I didn't have to support Windows products as a tech, I
wouldn't
use them on my machines...
At this point in time my other box runs Suse Linux 9.2 (free) with Firefox
(free)
and Thunderbird mail (also free)... and lately have been pointing my home
user
clients in that direction...
I have 3 clients that use Suse exclusively... yeah it takes me a little
extra
time to show them where stuff is at, but once they know they seem to like it
better...

 

Einstein
I agree about Linux. I still haven't upgraded from '98 yet because about
the only thing I do on this box is game and internet. I have a computer
running RH9 and one running Fedora 2 that needs some RAM, long boring story.
I like the concept of Linux but there are problems installing software for
those who don't WANT to get their hands dirty. I've got a couple of
groupware programs that I've spent about two months trying to install and
still don't have them working properly, lots of dependency problems and
editing file permissions and group permissions by hand. Shouldn't need to
be done and wouldn't be put up with in the Windows world.
I still think there are some things that need to be improved for Linux
before I'm going to recommend it to Grandma.

AG

 

First of all MSquish ad blocking tool is worthless -- it flags it's own
DLL's as suspect. Result, people who do not know what they are doing
delete these files and their systems fall down adn go boom boom. This is a
good thing for me and my shop for we repair their mistakes, but this should
never be the case.

We also build and sell systems. Most of the systems we sell are to college
students. Guess what, as long as they are not engineering students needing
specialized software, most opt for Linux. Why? Identical systems shown
side by side the linux system outperforms the MSquish systems for 90% of
the tests.

The comment regarding bloating the software for other purposes, yes that is
the Credo at MSquish. However, because of the fiasco with Intel and
MSquish about user systems calling home (i.e., MS or Intel) it is not
likely to happen without some major sqawking underground before it is made
public. In which case it will be shelved.

The upshot will be this. As the current college kids mature into good
corporate citizens, MS will slowly be pushed to rethink any type of policy
such as calling home. I watched this happened with VAX, Unix, OS/2, MAC,
and Apple II as well as any number of systems over the last 20 years.

So what will happen? Nobody knows for certain, but I venture to guess that
MS will not be giving this software away for long without some major
revisions. Any chance bloat the software MS will do. However, it is
unlikely then will use it to call home with a listing of software any time
in the near future.


Bum

 

I guess it is like driving a car. Some people are only interested in
how to put the key in, put it in drive, and go. There will always be
those type of people. Some, wanna know how to change their own oil, do
routine thins to it. Some, will wanna know how to pull the motor,
rebuild it, getting more horsepower, hooking up NO2, and the works.

 

The dependency problems seem to be rectified using yum (aptget type prog)
at least in Fedora core 3... YAST in SuSe is very good at finding
dependencies and
locating them for you...
I will admit it is a learning curve, but setting up a box for some one who
just browses, plays flash games, email, and the like, it has saved me the
headaches of constantly fixing their mistakes... (I AM ADMIN )

I know it will never happen, but I wish more people would get a clue,
but it's like giving a teenager keys to the car, they don't care how it
runs,
as long as it goes...

 

2005-02-15


Lavasoft does not cooperate with WhenU!
As a result of recent rumours and speculation by members of the privacy
community and the public at large, Lavasoft wants to make clear that it
has not and would not collaborate with any companies that have produced
content detected by Ad-Aware. Ad-Aware products are designed purely for
scanning and removing of suspicious content (at the user’s discretion)
and Lavasoft would not ally with adversaries under any circumstances.

WhenU was indeed removed from the database by research in the last
definition file. This however was due to WhenU not scoring more than 2
TAC points at the time, 3 points being the minimum score to be included
in the database. More information on the Threat Assessment Chart can be
found at http://www.lavasoftnews.com/ms/tac_main.htm
The TAC report will be reviewed in more detail by our R&D department and
in case it turns out that the removal was incorrect, WhenU will naturally
be reintroduced to the database.


For further information, please contact


BUM

 

Link not too helpful, no chart-- only search form. WhenU or WhenU.com not
found. Searching the Site with Google yields a few hits, but they're just
definition files that include WhenU.

The link DOES give the formula, but you can't get the score for an entry.

 

I have two of those. One's 27 and the other's 22. These were web based
groupware programs that aren't ready for prime time IMHO. Unfortunately I
lost that job, got laid off.

AG