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Author Topic: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome  (Read 10,418 times)

justice

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Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« on: March 12, 2012, 10:33 AM »
Anyone seen this before?
[attachimg=#]

It's just an autohotkey compiled script (no executable packer) inside an innosetup executable. Jotti tells me there are no viruses found, so why is Google Chrome not happy?

Chrome's learn more links goes to http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=99020 but it's typically unhelpful. Any ideas?
If now we have to petition the browsers as well as the virusscanners I will have to switch platforms..
« Last Edit: March 12, 2012, 10:40 AM by justice »

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2012, 10:57 AM »
That link only seems to mention things about potential scam WEBSITES and nothing about SOFTWARE

However, you might be pleased to know, your not the only one who is irritated by this:

https://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=Google+Chrome+file+appears+malicious

The above link brings up a whole bunch of other posts about this...most seem to have started around Feb of this year, so maybe from whatever update was released in Feb? (Not a Chrome user, so don't know)

If your still PO'ed about it...I'll say to you, what I say to everyone who has a problem with FF or Chrome...

www.opera.com

;D

justice

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2012, 12:06 PM »
I've found an explanation of the 'feature', but no solution:
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2012/01/speed-and-security.html
Quote
To help protect you against malicious downloads, Chrome now includes expanded functionality to analyze executable files (such as “.exe” and “.msi” files) that you download. If a file you download is known to be bad, or is hosted on a website that hosts a relatively high percentage of malicious downloads, Chrome will warn you that the file appears to be malicious and that you should discard it. We’re starting small with this initial Beta release, but we’ll be ramping up coverage for more and more malicious files in the coming months. Remember, no technical mechanism can ever protect you completely from malicious downloads. You should always be careful about which files you download and consider the reputation of their source.
Emphasis added. Excuse me.

I'm now verifying my site with mywot.com and google webmaster tools, will see if Google flagged any downloads. If not, clearly they should use a blacklist approach not whitelist.

update: ok done: Google has not detected any malware on this site. Guess they're just flagging for the hell of it. Guess  You should always be careful about which browser you download and consider the reputation of their source.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2012, 12:15 PM by justice »

Ath

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2012, 12:23 PM »
I've seen similar 'issues' with downloads using IE9 on other Inno Setup based installers lately (in the Inno Setup newsgroups). Case of 'meh' I guess, or another way of pestering small software vendors.
/Ton
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Renegade

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2012, 12:50 PM »
Inno Setup files periodically trigger AV warnings. One of the reasons is because of compression.

Virus signatures and compression both hold a common theme: Uniqueness and maximum entropy. This is why that happens.

Still, always double-check, but just be aware that the AV methods used will always have false positives. That will never stop. (Ok, it might stop if larger spaces are used, but that becomes impractical... so it will never stop.)
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bastik

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2012, 06:49 PM »
I had a lot of warnings in the far past with compiled autohotkey scripts. They were detected as "autohotkey trojan" (or similar). Apparently the AV picked something that was present in most/some of the compiled versions of the scripts as well as the actual malware.

Double-checking never hurts.

ewemoa

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2012, 10:40 PM »
IIUC, more recent AHK things are compressed with mpress, whereas before compression of such things was much more often done using upx.  My current impression is that the triggering (if any) of recent AHK things (i.e. using mpress) is much less frequent.

If someone knows otherwise, perhaps they can chime in :)

justice

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2012, 02:20 PM »
I made sure my executables are not compressed at all, in this case it maybe has to do with the innosetup executable not being signed with a level 2 object code signing certificate?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9512919/getting-around-chromes-malicious-file-warning/

justice

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Re: Download appears malicious - Google Chrome
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2012, 09:03 AM »
Update.
Still not sure how it happened. However, a solution is to join Google Webmaster Tools. After a few days the warning is no longer shown:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/9727960/997

Original address: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30266.0