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Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

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Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#71

Post by josefresco »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #62
pmlnr wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the question. Maintenance will always be a thing, carried out by humans, cron, or the os itself doesn't really matter.

Why doesn't MS Windows do the maintenance - CCleaner does things like clean up ancient cache files, remove Windows update files, remove registry entries for software that's no longer installed. That sort of maintenance seems like it's the result of poor design in an OS that has the hood welded shut. I actually used ccleaner on Win 10 recently, an MS update had associated loads of files with TWINUI which wasn't instal…

As other have said already, Windows does this - CCleaner does it ... better. And also did it before Windows did it.

Plenty of examples of native apps doing something that third-party apps do much better.

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#72

Post by hourislate »

Was reading a copy of Maximum PC a while back and they suggested Privazer http://privazer.com/ . I've installed it on a couple of machines and it seems to do a pretty thorough job in cleaning the system.

The CCleaner infection was for win32 machines and from what I understand upgrading to the next version (v5.34) fixes the problem.

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#73

Post by Cthulhu_ »

josefresco wrote: post #68
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #23

As a kid, the only OS I was aware of was Windows. Once, my computer was infected to the point where it was almost unusable. A more experienced friend suggested a non-free antivirus and the CCleaner. After a lot of effort, I could get my machine back to working, but it became so slow that it led me to discover Linux. Now, on a Windows 10 machine, I’ve nothing but Defender, and since the aforementioned experience I’ve…

CCleaner is not an Anti-Virus. It does not run in the background (at least the free version) and will not slow your PC. It helps users locate and remove temporary/cache files buried in the OS to free up disk space. It is very useful - even for pros. Defender will not do this.

CCleaner does sell a bit of FUD though - "your computer is slow, use us so it goes faster". I don't think "crap" is causing significant slowdowns anymore, maybe frees up some disk space but nothing that the OS can't do itself either.

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#74

Post by happy-go-lucky »

ryan-allen wrote: post #63
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #23

As a kid, the only OS I was aware of was Windows. Once, my computer was infected to the point where it was almost unusable. A more experienced friend suggested a non-free antivirus and the CCleaner. After a lot of effort, I could get my machine back to working, but it became so slow that it led me to discover Linux. Now, on a Windows 10 machine, I’ve nothing but Defender, and since the aforementioned experience I’ve…

I downloaded a GTA 5 mod that had malware bundled and Windows Defender didn't catch it. I run Malwarebytes as well these days, but that's it.

I’m not a gamer. Also, I can’t recommend using or not using Defender. For aimless browsing I use my Linux box, and one of my favorite browser extensions is uBlock Origin. Nowadays I don’t have to carry flash drives or other storage devices and never plug in things that belong to others :)

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#75

Post by ix-hispana »

superasn wrote: post #35
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #23

As a kid, the only OS I was aware of was Windows. Once, my computer was infected to the point where it was almost unusable. A more experienced friend suggested a non-free antivirus and the CCleaner. After a lot of effort, I could get my machine back to working, but it became so slow that it led me to discover Linux. Now, on a Windows 10 machine, I’ve nothing but Defender, and since the aforementioned experience I’ve…

> it led me to discover Linux As someone who is the same boat but hasn't discovered Linux yet, how hard would you say it would be to install a version of Linux that support 3 monitors (using an onboard ATI card and a PCIe card)? Last time I tried installing it this is the part I gave up at. Also as a person always been aware of Window I find the graphics in Ubuntu lacking some finesse, i.e. the scrollbars, window pan…

Don't go down that rabbit hole. Linux is not for desktop despite many years of efforts. Even the distro with the greatest focus on UI (elementaryOS) looks like a toy. That Linux is hugely successful everywhere EXCEPT in the desktop should tell us something.

Just my honest opinion after 15 years of continuous use in university and work.

XKCD still relevant today: https://xkcd.com/456/

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#76

Post by Nullabillity »

superasn wrote: post #35
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #23

As a kid, the only OS I was aware of was Windows. Once, my computer was infected to the point where it was almost unusable. A more experienced friend suggested a non-free antivirus and the CCleaner. After a lot of effort, I could get my machine back to working, but it became so slow that it led me to discover Linux. Now, on a Windows 10 machine, I’ve nothing but Defender, and since the aforementioned experience I’ve…

> it led me to discover Linux As someone who is the same boat but hasn't discovered Linux yet, how hard would you say it would be to install a version of Linux that support 3 monitors (using an onboard ATI card and a PCIe card)? Last time I tried installing it this is the part I gave up at. Also as a person always been aware of Window I find the graphics in Ubuntu lacking some finesse, i.e. the scrollbars, window pan…

How long ago was it, and what GPU did you try it with? Most relatively modern AMD GPUs (especially Polaris/RX 4xx and newer) work great out of the box these days, but that's a relatively recent phenomenon.

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#77

Post by Filligree »

sdwisely wrote: post #50
cm2187 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ok for the NSA and a few large enterprises to check certain binaries but you can't ask any start up or small company to recompile themselves every version of every OS / Software / Library that they use. It's not really a practical solution (even assuming everything is open source).

compile times are fast enough now that if the tools were friendly enough I don't know it would be so inconvenient to the end user anymore. is there any distros out there now that are source based like Gentoo with more friendly defaults?

There's NixOS. By default it uses a binary cache, but it'd be easy to disable that if you want to.

And reproducible builds are a work in progress.

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#78

Post by happy-go-lucky »

josefresco wrote: post #68
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #23

As a kid, the only OS I was aware of was Windows. Once, my computer was infected to the point where it was almost unusable. A more experienced friend suggested a non-free antivirus and the CCleaner. After a lot of effort, I could get my machine back to working, but it became so slow that it led me to discover Linux. Now, on a Windows 10 machine, I’ve nothing but Defender, and since the aforementioned experience I’ve…

CCleaner is not an Anti-Virus. It does not run in the background (at least the free version) and will not slow your PC. It helps users locate and remove temporary/cache files buried in the OS to free up disk space. It is very useful - even for pros. Defender will not do this.

> CCleaner is not an Anti-Virus

I never said that.

> Defender will not do this.

I know what it does.

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#79

Post by pbhjpbhj »

marian0_ wrote: post #65
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn't MS Windows do the maintenance - CCleaner does things like clean up ancient cache files, remove Windows update files, remove registry entries for software that's no longer installed. That sort of maintenance seems like it's the result of poor design in an OS that has the hood welded shut. I actually used ccleaner on Win 10 recently, an MS update had associated loads of files with TWINUI which wasn't instal…

The OS does it by itself. It even includes an application so you can do it yourself if you want which is called "Disk Cleanup".

I'm admittedly out of the loop, last time I used disk cleanup would have been Win7, I guess MS expanded it to do much more useful work?

Re: Malware identified in CCleaner 5.33

#80

Post by turtlebits »

happy-go-lucky wrote: post #74
ryan-allen wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downloaded a GTA 5 mod that had malware bundled and Windows Defender didn't catch it. I run Malwarebytes as well these days, but that's it.

I’m not a gamer. Also, I can’t recommend using or not using Defender. For aimless browsing I use my Linux box, and one of my favorite browser extensions is uBlock Origin. Nowadays I don’t have to carry flash drives or other storage devices and never plug in things that belong to others :)

Do you never run software you haven't written/audited?
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