uTorrent is flagged as malicious by several antivirus engines currently
If you check the latest uTorrent setup file on Virustotal or other virus checking services, or run local checks using security solutions, you may notice that it is being flagged.
Both uTorrent Classic -- the local version of uTorrent -- and uTorrent Web -- the new web-based solution -- and BitTorrent are flagged by multiple antivirus solutions at the time of writing. The main release, uTorrent Classic, is detected by ten antivirus engines including Microsoft Defender, Sophos, Eset Nod32, GData, and Dr.Web.
Note: BitTorrent was sold in 2018.
Being flagged does not necessarily mean that a program is malicious or problematic; false positives happen but the likelihood is reduced when mainstream security solutions flag a program.
What is being detected? Most engines list "PUA or potentially unwanted application" as the reason and that indicates some sort of software bundling or file dropping on user systems. ESET lists Web Companion as a reference and that leads to Ad-Aware's Web Companion application. Whether that program has been offered as part of uTorrent's installation is unclear at this point.
A test download and installation revealed the following:
- uTorrent Classic downloaded fine in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 with Windows Defender enabled. The program was not blocked from being downloaded.
- The software installed fine on the same machine. Windows Defender did not prevent the installation.
- It did include an offer to install the password manager Dashlane, but that offer was not checked.
- It did include another offer, this time for WinZip and that checkbox was checked (and very tiny in comparison to the big next button).
- There was also an add for NordVPN on the installation succeeded screen.
It is reasonable to assume that offers are switched at times, e.g. based on region, time or incentive to put them up. The flagging of the executable file that is downloaded from the official website by Microsoft but the inactivity during download or installation is puzzling but only on first glance.
Windows Defender does not detect or block potentially unwanted programs by default. You need to enable the option first before it checks executable files for that. The security solution prevented the download of utorrent.exe after I enabled the option on the Windows 10 system. Other security solutions that flag the executable may block its download or execution automatically.
Users who have installed uTorrent may notice that the program is blocked from execution. The beta release is flagged by just two antivirus engines. One possible reason for that is that it does not include nearly as many offers as the release version.
Closing Words
Some users use legacy versions of uTorrent that don't include offers, ads and other unwanted content. Others have moved on to solutions such as qBittorrent or Transmission. It is interesting to note that the previous owners announced in 2015 that they would move away from the bundled software offer model.
Now You: do you use a torrent client? (via GenBeta)
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.