Spyware

[Negative]

Here's a (limited) list of known spyware containing software titles:

Go!Zilla download accelerator: Radius
CuteFTP: Everad
BearShare: Savenow
Audio Galaxy: Webhancer
iMesh: Conducent/Timesink
KaZaA: Cydoor (Kazaa won't even work without Cydoor installed) - Webhancer (install is optional, but is installed anyways) - OnFlow, EZula, News.net.
MS Windows 95: the registration wizard sends an installed software list to Redmond.
MS Windows XP: the registration wizard sends an installed hardware list to Redmond.
NetScape Navigator: Smart Download option makes a list of all downloaded files, and sends it to a central server. The What's Related function also does.

Feel free to ad(d) your own!

And here's (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) a program (Ad-aware) to detect them...

[Dhej]

www.grc.com is another good resource in the fight against spyware.

He has written OptOut which only detects a few different spyware apps, but it is written in assembler and is like 24k or something nuts like that.

He also has "the anatomy of spyware."

Dhej

[petemcevoy]

Afaik Steve Gibson acknowledged the lavasoft program as being superior to his and now just directs people towards thier site for thier spy-ware removal needs.

[rnapro]

I thought I heard something about Real Player sending information on what people were listening to. What data were they collecting?

[Dhej]

Oops!

Thanks Pete, you can tell how outdated my Windows info is. Since I switched to Mac, I don't keep as up-to-date on my Windows info.

Anyway, I am glad Negative brought up the subject. It is something that I used to be really paranoid about, but then I became complacent I guess. What I needed was someone to throw the info in my face again.

Rnapo,
RealMedia admitted that their software sent info about what the user was listening to, bitrates, "diagnostic" info, but they said that it didn't send any info that it could use to trace back to the user. I think someone showed that an ID tag or something was sent back, but I wouldn't quote me on that. They have since given the user the option to disallow data to be sent back. It was a pretty big deal when it happened, I remember uninstalling RealPlayer for about a month until the whole issue was resolved.

Thanks again pete, I always claim that I need an editor, I think this illustrates why.

Dhej

[Dome]

Nitrous Anti Spy isnt bad at all Nitrous Online (http://www.nitrousonline.com)

Dhej, i havent used mac in forver, how is it? do you run into alot of problems w. programs that dont work on mac??
i like macs as far as their resources and everything but there isnt as much developed for it as Windows or *nix.

Anyway, some of you should check out Nitrous Anti Spy

[Stonefield2000]

I agree with with above poster, Lavasoft's Ad-aware program is a must have for anyone connected to the internet.

[knightmb]

Comet Cursor is spyware.

I mean, you can change the mouse cursor in control panel, why do people think this program does it in a different way? Anyway, my girlfriend uses this, even though I told her it was spyware. After showing her how to change it through control panel, I secretly "uninstalled" and deleted the comet cursor crap :o

[smellkid]

I had so much trouble with spyware shit a few weeks ago. I had all possible file sharing programs installed before I knew a thing about spyware and then when I went back to the 24/7 connection to the internet at school, i was getting like 100 popup ads a day. It was terrible. I finally found this program on CNeT that wouldn't let any browser open unless you were holding CTRL or SHIFT. It was a pain in the ass, but less so than dealing with all those popups, which would constantly drop me out of Half Life :D

I have since installed WinXP and it seems to have gotten rid of just about everything. Right now I have AdSubstract running just in case. Oh god how I hate spyware. There needs to be some kind of laws against that shit.

[Stonefield2000]

I had a spyware program that would drop my fps playing online games down to 4, normally 100 to 120 fps. Imagine how pissed I was when I found that one, I believe it installed with one of the file sharing programs and started causeing problems when I tried disableing it. I since switched to Morpheous (no spyware) for my file sharing needs and scan frequently for spyware, been cool since.

I am a Systems Analyst and do desktop support and it still took a long time to remove it, I can't image what the out of the box computer user would do in this instance. That could cost a lot of money in support and repair charges. I don't know where they get off thinking that our pcs are some kind of public domain for their sales people to run their spy programs to see what we are doing.

[Simon Templer]

Thanks For the Info Everyone

I had heard of spyware and knew what it was but really didnt take it serious. After reading all these posts I downloaded Ad-Aware and found 6 know Spyware types on my computer.

Thanks again for the info!

[rnapro]

Dhej is right GRC has some good data on spyware.

http://grc.com/optout.htm

This is really something I did not think much about before, but it is a real invasion of privacy.

[Terr]

Originally posted by smellkid
I have since installed WinXP and it seems to have gotten rid of just about everything. Right now I have AdSubstract running just in case. Oh god how I hate spyware. There needs to be some kind of laws against that shit.

Well, I think there *is* such a law, the problem is that they do it quasi-legally, by hiding all of the weasel-words inside the EULA. I bet most people just click 'accept' without knowing that they are actually agreeing to give half of all their income after taxes to company X...

They (the US government) should mandate several predefined EULA types, a few that can be distilled into plain english, and then have companies either pick one or make their own. If they make their own, you KNOW you'd better read the print, and if they use Type A/B/C/D/E, you can just read the canned-and-official-in-plain-english summary.

[dark1]

Originally posted by rnapro
I thought I heard something about Real Player sending information on what people were listening to. What data were they collecting?


well i know that i don't really use realplayer and my firewall always pops up with alearts aksing if real can access the internet

[itsme]

This is some REAL info!!

Thanks everyone n specially negative. :)

[stflook]

Cometcursor and Hotbar are both LOADED with spyware.

[Ennis]

I believe Gator which I never used has spyware, I used Ad-Aware 5.5 and found the usual and this, at the time I didnt even know I had Gator [it stores passwords].

Anyway just thought Id add that.

[Galdron]

Great post by all!! Good information!!!!

Yet I must ad that The OptOut Study on Grc.com has finished. As reported on the website "All copies of Opt Out have expired and will not be renewed", apparently Steve Gibson is using it as a study for a new product. To me thats quite impressive. The fact that he would put that much effort, into a project, before releasing one full of bugs like many of his Peers. Over 2.5 million copies were downloaded. lol

Galdron is Impressed

P:

[Jeeto]

i think gator has spyware too.

[hogfly]

As I have mentioned in a few other posts, BHO cop is another good utility for removing spyware. The following link will take you a few good articles on BHO's(spyware) and a download for BHO cop. We call it spyware, but its a little more interesting than that.



http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,s%253D1046%2526a%253D1066,00.asp


enjoy.

[gold eagle]

A good thread Negative.

spyware is not just found on inet browsing, some applications have it inside themselves, often described as an auto-update feature. Thought I would warn everyone about that.


:(

[CyberSpyder]

I personally use Ad-Aware to detect and delete spyware on my computer and it works pretty well for me.

[Vorlin]

Hehe, I can see some people don't read much on the Antivirus side. Anyways, here's some more helpful links for those who need help in the spyware area:

http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=157452

http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150752

Both of those include various information about 3rd party software, spyware, ads/banners, and LavasoftUSA's kickass Ad-Aware (worth buying).

[Negative]

Nice posts, Vorlin, but it's not LavasoftUSA's Ad-Aware ;)
It's LavasoftDE's Ad-Aware... LavaSoft is a German company ;)

[Vorlin]

Originally posted here (http://www.AntiOnline.com/showthread.php?threadid=116104#post457333) by Negative
Nice posts, Vorlin, but it's not LavasoftUSA's Ad-Aware ;)
It's LavasoftDE's Ad-Aware... LavaSoft is a German company ;)

Hehe Negative, if you'll check the url for the posts, you'll see it goes to www.lavasoftusa.com.
That is home to *THE* Ad-Aware 5.62 (final release so far) along with RefUpdate 1.3. There's a lavasoft.com that has other software and games, but I don't think they're affiliated.

[Conf1rm3d_K1ll]

Originally posted here (http://www.AntiOnline.com/showthread.php?threadid=116104#post457333) by Negative

It's LavasoftDE's Ad-Aware... LavaSoft is a German company ;)


Ah, the Germans. They've given us The Volkswagon, The Holocaust and Spyware removal tools......



I'm joking people......joking!

[Negative]

Hehe Vorlin, I knew you were going to say that ;)

Check out www.ministryofnegativism.tk (http://www.ministryofnegativism.tk) ... It's my site, but I don't live in Tokelau, if you know what I mean :p

Check out all the contact-, and support-adresses for Lavasoft... all .de's
A German company....

[s0nIc]

my firewall picked up Onflow, Ezula and Webhancer few months ago and yeah.. i denied it to access the internet PEMANENTLY the moment my firewall spotted it, and ive been wondering what they are.. so thanks to your post i finally know that they are spywares.. hehe.. i had the hunch though.

[NIN_Man]

i´d like to know if all the spyware is removes with one of those scanners like Nitrous. does it affect the software wich it came with? for example: i installed kazaa media desktop. with it came webhancer. if i remove webhancer will it affect kazaa??? please help.

[BrainStop]

SpyChaser is a pretty extensive database of spyware. You can find it at:

http://camtech2000.net/Pages/SpyChaser.html

Cheers,

BrainStop

[T6286]

Apparently Microsoft's Media Player "phones home" when you're watching DVD's. Here's the link (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24152.html) .

Regards,

T6286

[The Old Man]

Originally posted here (http://www.AntiOnline.com/showthread.php?threadid=116104#post237765) by petemcevoy
Afaik Steve Gibson acknowledged the lavasoft program as being superior to his and now just directs people towards thier site for thier spy-ware removal needs.
*************
I used OptOut since the day Steve Gibson originally turned it loose. :D At the time, there was a huge flap from Real about what they were doing, and it seems, if memory serves, that there was indeed a few bites in their bot that coud be used to identify induvidual users. What actually happened, as I recall from some time ago, was Gibson got busy on another project, and the time involved with updating the OptOut database and posting updates was eating his lunch. So he gave OptOut to the good folks at LavaSoft (Germany, as I recall, maybe I'm mistaken...) and they have done a great job of identifying and posting updates not only to the SpyBot database, but to the program as well. I downloaded the new version as soon as LavaSoft had it posted. You are all correct about the SpyBots, most of them are personally identifying, resource-disturbing, and totally invasive of your personal space, security and privacy. Of course, some bots you probably want, like the ones that ID you to sites you want to go back to without signing in all the time. What I did was kill all the cookies everywhere, then go to my favorite places (like Antionline) and run LavaSoft, then tell it to ignore that cookie. Then I'd go to my next place, (no stops in between), and tell it to ignore that one. Then whenever LavaSoft found another cookie, I just tell it to kill it. Maybe you have a better system? :D

[Tedob1]

with that sys admin being found guilty of theft of services, because he put distributed computing clients on the computers he administered.

I wonder if its possible to start a class action suite against those pillars of socity, like clicltowin, using the same argument? hitem' where it hurts.

[ame1usn]

Is it possible for a single program such as comet cursor to drop more than 1 spyware reference on to a computer? I thought it was really cool a couple years ago until I ran ADAWARE and came up with something like 124 spyware references all courtesy of comet cursor. Can this be or was I not reading something right.

Mike

[65_289]

I use SpyBot Search & Destroy. It found some things that Ad Aware didn't. http://www.safer-networking.org/