{"id":184934,"date":"2011-12-05T22:38:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T03:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2011\/12\/05\/dont-use-download-com\/"},"modified":"2011-12-05T22:38:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T03:38:00","slug":"dont-use-download-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2011\/12\/05\/dont-use-download-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Use Download.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seriously.  They have taken to bundling malware with their download installers<\/a>:<\/p>\n

From: Fyodor
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 14:35:30 -0800<\/fyodor><\/i><\/p>\n

Hi Folks. I’ve just discovered that C|Net’s Download.Com site has
started wrapping their Nmap downloads (as well as other free software
like VLC) in a trojan installer which does things like installing a
sketchy “StartNow” toolbar, changing the user’s default search engine
to Microsoft Bing, and changing their home page to Microsoft’s MSN.<\/p>\n

The way it works is that C|Net’s download page (screenshot attached)
offers what they claim to be Nmap’s Windows installer. They even
provide the correct file size for our official installer. But users
actually get a Cnet-created trojan installer. That program does the
dirty work before downloading and executing Nmap’s real installer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>
At least, there is symmetry<\/span><\/div>\n

Note that the author of this post is also the author of Nmap, and this violates his license.<\/p>\n

Here’s some more background<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fact that they (CNET\/Download.com) also employ “Draw by Crayon Libertarian<\/a>” Declan McCullagh, who is still proud of creating the “Al Gore created the Internet” lie provides a book end for this crap.<\/p>\n

I’m not suggesting a boycott here.  I’m suggesting that CNET, and more specifically Download.com, has crossed a line and is now a purveyor of malware.<\/p>\n

It’s just not me saying this, it’s, “Panda, McAfee, F-Secure,” (top link) who are classifying their wrappers as spyware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seriously.  They have taken to bundling malware with their download installers: From: Fyodor Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 14:35:30 -0800 Hi Folks. I’ve just discovered that C|Net’s Download.Com site hasstarted wrapping their Nmap downloads (as well as other free softwarelike VLC) in a trojan installer which does things like installing asketchy “StartNow” toolbar, changing the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005,969,1064,989],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-evil","category-media","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}