limewire is it safe?

Less · 11-10-2006, 11:42

I use, zone alarm, AVG and spybot on my p.c. and my laptop, due to this I have fortunately had no problems of anything infectious up until now.

Yesterday, I turned on my lap top and Oh dear, it was running tragically slow,
taking about 20 minutes to open a window. So I ran my virus checker(AVG) after about two and a half hours of scanning I got the results.

2,978 trojans on it!
All of these where found in one folder,

C:\Documents and Settings\less\shared\<title of a program or DVD>

The shared folder is used by limewire. I don't use limewire very often and I doubt that I have downloaded more than about 50 items from them (and after each download I would check for any imported virus), so where have all these come from?

According to Broadbandinfo Limewire give this advice,

Quote:

There is no virus scan built into LimeWire. Therefore, viruses can be downloaded while file sharing through LimeWire. LimeWire suggests combating this problem by being aware of what you are downloading, avoiding .exe and .vbs files, and running a virus-scanner regularly after you download new files through LimeWire.

But is there some security hole being created by having limewire on my system in the first place? Is it when limewire is running in the background it is creating an easy route past my firewall for these trojans?

I don't know what the answer is, but I fear it's too late for my laptop, looks like another format coming up, but until I can find some sort of re-assurance that it would be safe to use limewire I will be removing it from my main P.C. and it won't be getting re-installed on my laptop.

Healing replys only please!

WillowTheWhisp · 11-10-2006, 12:09

If they were all found in that one folder could it be that some evil minded so and so has a bunch of viruses in a folder which is in their 'files available for upload' under the title of a DVD you thought you were harmlessly downloading from them?

Less · 11-10-2006, 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

If they were all found in that one folder could it be that some evil minded so and so has a bunch of viruses in a folder which is in their 'files available for upload' under the title of a DVD you thought you were harmlessly downloading from them?

The simple answer is no, I've only used limewire to download music, not prog's, games or DVD's.

All of the titles where in those categouries, so far as I understood you have to download and open the infected programs I haven't done either.

When my checker first started reporting these prog's I went and had a look in the folder, no sign of them, (not hidden files either), so where they came from or how they got there I have no idea, perhaps someone used a breach in my security to remotely place them on my laptop so that I would spread them, I don't know.

It's got me puzzled!

entwisi · 11-10-2006, 12:24

They might not be evil minded, they could be totally oblivious to the fact.

IMHO I would use a linux box for downloads and scan them there before moving to a windows machine. No chance of infections there.

WillowTheWhisp · 11-10-2006, 12:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

They might not be evil minded, they could be totally oblivious to the fact.

Very true, they may simply have been an innocent link in a chain which was started by the evil minded aforementioned so and so.

Less · 11-10-2006, 14:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

They might not be evil minded, they could be totally oblivious to the fact.

IMHO I would use a linux box for downloads and scan them there before moving to a windows machine. No chance of infections there.

I think in actual fact when I do reformat the laptop linux is going on, I don't even think I'll be tempted to have it dual-boot that way I won't be tempted to leave myself vulnerable to all this type of cr*p oozing through the cracks! (by cr*p, I mean viruses, not, accyweb before one of my more sensitive fans feels a need to jump on me).

WillowTheWhisp · 11-10-2006, 14:11

I thought you meant the rat droppings.

Less · 11-10-2006, 14:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

I thought you meant the rat droppings.

ongratulations!

First wander of the thread award is your's:engsmil:

accymel · 11-10-2006, 14:47

I've not had any probs with Limewire tho i only download music & mp4's occaisonally.

Less · 11-10-2006, 14:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by accymel

I've not had any probs with Limewire tho i only download music & mp4's occaisonally.

That's all I've used it for, and no problems until now, so where has the rest come from?

SamF · 11-10-2006, 18:43

Trojans by name should tell you that it could be anything that causes the problem. A trojan is a virus posing as something else, contrary to popular belief, it does not have to be .exe to cause problems, a binding program is used by trojan makers so add a virus to a regular file and when the regular file is executed ( in this case probably when you play the music track ) it will install the virus at the same time.

No virus software is 100% effective, and tend to fend off against well known or very generic viruses, if it's a teenager locked in his bedroom trying to cause a bit of trouble odds are the scanner wont find it as the virus will be unique.

So basically, the internet as a whole isn't safe, if a pro-hacker wanted to he could get into your computer and there is nothing you could do about stopping him. What there are is varying levels of security, never downloading files etc reduces the risks of contracting a virus, however this is impractical. What is a FACT is that a file sharing program increases the risk of contracting a virus greatly. A file sharing program is basically a program that constantly shouts out "I'm here, I've got this!" to anyone who wants to listen and the file sharing program provides a direct link for others to your computer and therefore it is common sense that without this shouting or the direct link your computer is a lot safer.

A very long winded and unorganised reply but I think you get the point

silvermain · 14-10-2006, 17:12

limewire is it safe?

Yes but its crap!

janet · 15-10-2006, 11:01

Instead of Limewire try aresgalaxy it's a better site don't get loads of virus's.

semihere · 20-10-2006, 18:53

A safer solution is always to set up a separate user account for doing insecure things with. One that has no admin or root priviliges. Perhaps create a drop-box for downloads and set the permissions for that to have no execute privileges and also point a virus scanner at it to double-check.

If you're in any doubt about a file, don't run it. Simple as...

Generally avoid Windows XPletive at all costs - partly due to the security issues, but mainly because it's awful!! heh

Any flavour of *Nix will offer you better control over your running services and access privileges to various areas of shares/volumes/drives/accounts, be it a Linux Distro/Unix/MacOSX. XP tries to hide as many things as possible from the user behind those annoying 'wizards' which is all very well if you don't know what you're doing, but a pain in the arse if you do.

What's probably happened is (as mentioned before) a trojan or collection of trojans have been attached to another file (possibly to set your PC up as a zombie to infect others) but as long as you don't execute the file they can't do any harm at all. Another way to make sure you're safe is to never allow downloads to automatically execute (like perhaps .zip files automatically decompressing when downloaded), so that you can check them out first.

You're never 100% secure, but if you can make it hard enough for the average script kiddie out there they might just move on to an easier target, unless they're really determined.

Also - a positive for Unix/Linux/MacOS users - Wine (free download) lets you run Windows apps without needing to run Windows. Linux version work fine right now, and the Mac version currently uses X11 to run it within the Unix environment, but I've read that it's currently being ported to 'carbonise' it so that it runs natively in the OS on the Intel Macs and then later for the PPC Macs. So you can throw away your vile OS, but keep all the functionality.

entwisi · 20-10-2006, 19:36

Yes, Wine, only it doesn't run "all" windows apps, in fact its a small subset and even then there are plenty of quirks that will catch out non expert usres. Plus it works best where there are native dlls it can hook into. on a pure *nix system its ropey at best

(and the above is from a true Linux bod who if anything would be biased towards your POV)