DonationCoder.com Software > Post New Requests Here

All AutoHotkey (AHK) coders read: No more upx packing of compiled ahk utils

(1/8) > >>

mouser:
As of today, I am advocating that we no longer host any compiled ahk utilities that have been "packed" with upx, which is something that autohotkey does by default when it builds exes.

The process of packing the executable with UPX results in a smaller sized file, but causes a continuous an inevitable false virus malware alert sooner or later.

Any application packed with upx by ahk compilation is almost guaranteed to be marked as a virus sooner or later and is going to cause trouble for any site that hosts it, and any users who get scared by it.

The true fault of this lies with the antivirus programs, but until we can get them to stop their bullshit, this is the only thing we have control over.


SO: If you are an ahk coder, go to your autohotkey /Compiler folder and delete the upx.exe executable.  That will stop ahk from packing your executable with UPX, and should solve the problem.


Again i repeat -- if you use AHK, do not upload to this site any compiled ahk program that is packed with upx -- remove the upx.exe from your ahk and recompile please.

f0dder:
Hrm, is disabling UPX packing enough to not get AHK scripts flagged? I thought that every virus scanner today knows how to unpack UPX (and several other packers) and do the scanning on the unpacked executable.

mouser:
if that's the case, then things are worse than i thought.

f0dder:
Even back in the pre-Win9x DOS days, ThunderByte AntiVirus (TBAV, which was the product back then) could decompress exepackers, and it even had a "virtualization" mode for unknown packers1 - afaik today's antivirus products, at least the better ones, have fast depackers for known exepackers and emulation for unknowns.

I assume the problem with all those false positives is static (or pattern-based) signatures that are simply too short... or heuristic engines that get confused for whatever fscktarded reason.

1: and there was at least one virus that figured out how to break out of the sandboxed mode, in effect causing a virus scan to infect your system :)

Stoic Joker:
Even tho I loved UPXs efficiency I quit using it years ago because of the tendency to FP on anything packed with it (Which is the root of why I hate heuristics). I just got tired of being cut off while trying to run a diagnostic on site because the client's AV ate my tool.

Is is "fair" (to UPX) to impose this limitation? No. But it does appear to be necessary. Even if it is only to eliminate it as the culprit...and/or expose a larger problem if it exists.

m2c

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page