Mind the PUP: Top download portals to avoid

[ignatzatsonic]

Mind the PUP: Top download portals to avoid | Emsisoft Blog

Above link ultimately promotes an Emisoft anti-malware app and Emisoft Emergency Kit, but might be revealing regardless:

"We looked into the ten most popular download portals, downloaded their top ten most popular applications to see how many toolbars, adware, homepage hijackers and other PUPs come with them to see how clean and safe they really are....................."

"Out of the ten tested download portals, only SourceForge managed to keep their top software PUP-free. The download portals that should be avoided at all costs are: Download.com, Tucows, and Softonic.................."

I'd never even heard of 3 or 4 of those sites and was kinda surprised Majorgeeks was not among those tested.

Also wondering if maybe they don't consider OpenCandy a PUP, considering how ubiquitous it is. Some folks get in a serious lather about it and others don't.

 

[Gator]

Good link, thanks

 

[Alejandro85]

NEVER, EVER download software from third party sites. The ONLY safe place to get new programs is the original author website.

Downloading anything from anywhere else but its original site is simply asking for trouble. There is no choice to make here.

 

[Callender]

Re: MajorGeeks.

Some of their dowmloads do indeed contain PUP's but at last they warn you on the download page.



Personally if I ever get cuaght out by a PUP I block the installer from ever running again.

 

[Gator]

I wonder how bleeping computer stacks up. Thats what I use most of the time if its not the direct site.

 

[Layback Bear]

PUP's are sadly a way of todays computing even from some original author website.

The only true way that I know of to stop most of them is the owner/operator of the computer to be aware of them and take steps not to download the unwanted.

Getting ride of installed PUP's is pretty simple but sometimes it's tricky not to download them.

Again it's down to the owner/operator learning proper methods.
They have to want to learn and take steps to do so. That seems to be a lost art with todays poke and go computer owners.
Of course they can learn here on this forum.

Their is a program that claims that it has a one step to stop all PUP's. It works at times and at times it doesn't.
Their is still a need for a updated and activated brain behind the keyboard.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Their is a program that claims that it has a one step to stop all PUP's. It works at times and at times it doesn't.

I'm guessing you mean Unchecky?

I installed it a month or so ago and haven't really drawn any conclusions yet.

 

[Layback Bear]

Yes I was referring to Unchecky.

Their have been post on this forum that their is problems at times with Unchecky.

I'm not knocking the program. I'm just trying to indicate that their is not a fix all for PUP's without the person behind the keyboard knowledgeable input.

Their is not a magic program. One must still learn and think.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Personally if I ever get cuaght out by a PUP I block the installer from ever running again.

I just get rid of the installer if it has a PUP I can't block from installing.

Some program installers have PUPs that can trigger an alert or action from anti-malware programs. One of my favorite programs, FreeFileSync, has Open Candy embedded in the installer. MBAM Pro will detect that and delete the installer (I my downloaded program installers in a folder for possible future use). To avoid losing FFS' installer to overzealous deletion by MBAM, I have to change the filename by appending .disable to the end of the filename. That both disabler the installer and puts it under MBAMs radar. To use it, all I have to do is delete .disable from the filename and it is as good as new.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Their is a program that claims that it has a one step to stop all PUP's. It works at times and at times it doesn't.
Their is still a need for a updated and activated brain behind the keyboard.

Their is a program that claims that it has a one step to stop all PUP's. It works at times and at times it doesn't.

I'm guessing you mean Unchecky?

I installed it a month or so ago and haven't really drawn any conclusions yet.

Yes I was referring to Unchecky.

Their have been post on ththis forum that their is problems at times with Unchecky.

I'm not knocking the program. I'm just trying to indicate that their is not a fix all for PUP's without the person behind the keyboard knowledgeable input.

Their is not a magic program. One must still learn and think.

Exactly. Unchecky is an excellent program to help avoid PUPs but it only works when there is a checkbox to be unchecked to opt out of a PUP. Not all installers give you that option. Some are sneaky and require you to check the box to opt out. Some, such as Adobe Flash, require you to opt out of the PUPs before you download them. Others have a PUP free installer hidden somewhere so you will be more likely to download the easy to find PUP infested one.

This is an excellent article on how to avoid PUPs.

I've personally have found Unchecky to be a worthwhile program to have in my arsenal of anti-malware programs and I highly recommend it. Even though it runs at start up and keeps running, it's so tiny, you will never know it's there until it does its thing. However, it is still the operator's responsibility to watch out for PUPs.

 

[Laith]

I really hate PuPs and Unchecky is a great program to have. When im installing anything i carefully read what they are actually installing, most of my friends just click continue all the time and get bloatware/pups and all that crappy stuff so i have to come over and fix that. As Lady Fitzgerald said, it is extermely good to have MBAM PRO with Unchecky to avoid PuPs as much as possible.

My personal top 7 PuPs are:

1. OpenCandy
2. Optimizer Pro
3. RegClean Pro
4. IOBit programs (advanced system care etc)
5. Mobogenie
6. HotSpotShield
7. YAC (Techinally not a PuP but a bunch of ads is thrown in there.

 

[groze]

NEVER, EVER download software from third party sites. The ONLY safe place to get new programs is the original author website.

Downloading anything from anywhere else but its original site is simply asking for trouble. There is no choice to make here.

Alejandro85,
Provided the author of the program provides a direct link. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.0 links to cnet. I found out Majorgeeks links directly to the some authors websites and also links to free downloads on their servers. I have been using MajorGeek for a long time. Don't judge other sites because of a few bad apples.


All,

I am surprised on Tucows is bad now, didn't use to be.

The dell webcam software that I use is a PUP and has opencandy which I didn't allow to install but it also has some other pups. That pup has to be installed or it won't work correctly. It creates video effects. The reason it is detected as a pup is the video effects will work with other streaming video. I had no issues with that secondary pup at all.

Epson printer also installs a PUP, it is there registration software. It has confused a lot of MVPs and regulars here because it creates two suspicious registry keys.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

A lot of people shy away from FreeFileSync, my go to program for backing up data, because its installer has Open Candy in it. However, the Open Candy does not install itself on the computer and runs only when FFS is being installed. It will "offer" to one or more "extra" programs (Google Tool Bar, Chrome, etc.) but you can opt out of them; you just have to pay attention during install.

 

[ThrashZone]

Ironically when Unchecky was suggested a while back it also came with a pup

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Ironically when Unchecky was suggested a while back it also came with a pup

Curious! When did that happen and what web site was offering that? I didn't run into that problem when I first started using it quite some time ago.

 

[Layback Bear]

I try to be careful even on known good download sites.
At any time a site can change their methods seeking funds.
Something could of got in without the site administrators noticing for a period of time.
It still comes down to being careful and some what knowledgeable on what to look for.

 

[ThrashZone]

From the developers website,
The pup wasn't hidden but still existed same as adobe products show it must be unchecked.
I can't remember what it came with.

 

[Alejandro85]

Alejandro85,
Provided the author of the program provides a direct link. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.0 links to cnet. I found out Majorgeeks links directly to the some authors websites and also links to free downloads on their servers. I have been using MajorGeek for a long time. Don't judge other sites because of a few bad apples.

If the author isn't capable of even hosting his own creation, I would doubt how safe is the program to use, provided I can't find a trusted download. It's entirely a matter of speculation there. There are developers that host their programs but purposely infect them with adware (Filezilla for example), and others that use third party hosting that's known to infect programs.

It always comes to a trusting decition. Once you write your admin password into the UAC box, you're pretty much at the mercy of the program developer. The matter of who to trust is not a minor problem, and those fake sites offering infected downloads make it just harder.
But if I had to do a blind guess (ie, try an untested program) I would always bet my computer to the program hosted at the original developer website instead of a third party. Both can go all right or wrong, I agree with what you said of the few bad apples, but years of experience tells me that original sites very seldom deliver infected programs, while thats is an everyday occurrence with third party ones. Paying attention while installing partially mitigates the problem.
And of course, portables are a far better choice if possible.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Alejandro85,
Provided the author of the program provides a direct link. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.0 links to cnet. I found out Majorgeeks links directly to the some authors websites and also links to free downloads on their servers. I have been using MajorGeek for a long time. Don't judge other sites because of a few bad apples.

If the author isn't capable of even hosting his own creation, I would doubt how safe is the program to use, provided I can't find a trusted download. It's entirely a matter of speculation there. There are developers that host their programs but purposely infect them with adware (Filezilla for example), and others that use third party hosting that's known to infect programs.

It always comes to a trusting decition. Once you write your admin password into the UAC box, you're pretty much at the mercy of the program developer. The matter of who to trust is not a minor problem, and those fake sites offering infected downloads make it just harder.
But if I had to do a blind guess (ie, try an untested program) I would always bet my computer to the program hosted at the original developer website instead of a third party. Both can go all right or wrong, I agree with what you said of the few bad apples, but years of experience tells me that original sites very seldom deliver infected programs, while thats is an everyday occurrence with third party ones. Paying attention while installing partially mitigates the problem.
And of course, portables are a far better choice if possible.

It cost more money for someone to host their own download site. Keep in mind the author is offering the product for free.

 

[Alejandro85]

It cost more money for someone to host their own download site. Keep in mind the author is offering the product for free.

Sure, but not all programs are that expensive to make a difference. Most downloads generally are a few MBs at most, that's in par with the general hosting space and bandwidth of the website in general, so hosting cost actually doesn't grows up. When speaking of hundreds of MBs to the GB range, then yes, cost will likely increases.
Open source has yet another advantage here. There are many free hosting platforms to choose from (GitHub, SourceForge, Codeplex, Launchpad, BitBucket, among others) which can easily relieve developers of this cost entirely.

And even then, there is always a reason why people release software without charging. Often one considers hosting cost if were to install a website before. Either they use open source hosting platforms, host it together with some paid software that pays the cost, or flood the site with advertisings. All those options come before considering delivering purposely infected software into users. There is a matter of reputation too.