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Popular file-share utilities contain Trojans
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Popular file-sharing software from Grokster and the Limewire Gnutella
Client contain the W32.DlDer Trojan, Symantec revealed last week.
According to several Reg readers, the KaZaA utility also contains the
same infection.
The Trojan here is a spyware application masquerading as a lottery
game called ClickTilUWin. When installing the Grokster or Limewire
software, and some versions of KaZaA, the user is given an option to
enable the ClickTilUWin feature. Regardless of whether one accepts or
declines, the Trojan is installed.
Grokster has offered an explanation of this embarrassing oversight on
its Web site:
"Some of you may be wondering why this Trojan was in our installer at
all," the company speculates wisely.
"We sometimes bundle advertiser applications with our installer in
order to help pay for our costs here at Grokster. We are normally
given an installer from the advertiser which we run during the
installation of Grokster. We have no access to the source code of
these third-party installers and so we rely on what our advertisers
say these programs do. To the best of our knowledge, this particular
advertiser simply placed a link to a free online lottery on the
desktop. We were never informed that it installed or was a Trojan."
The company has released a utility which it says will remove the
Trojan, and promises to have a clean version of its software available
in a matter of days.
Those who prefer to see to their own Trojan removal need only search
for a hidden directory under their \Windows directory called
\Explorer. Simply delete the \Windows\Explorer directory, along with
the companion file Dlder.exe in the \Windows directory.
The Trojan is not destructive, but does phone home to the ClickTilUWin
Web site with user data which, presumably, is used for marketing
purposes, or is perhaps forwarded to RIAA headquarters to assemble a
database of copyright scofflaws.
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Popular file-sharing software from Grokster and the Limewire Gnutella
Client contain the W32.DlDer Trojan, Symantec revealed last week.
According to several Reg readers, the KaZaA utility also contains the
same infection.
The Trojan here is a spyware application masquerading as a lottery
game called ClickTilUWin. When installing the Grokster or Limewire
software, and some versions of KaZaA, the user is given an option to
enable the ClickTilUWin feature. Regardless of whether one accepts or
declines, the Trojan is installed.
Grokster has offered an explanation of this embarrassing oversight on
its Web site:
"Some of you may be wondering why this Trojan was in our installer at
all," the company speculates wisely.
"We sometimes bundle advertiser applications with our installer in
order to help pay for our costs here at Grokster. We are normally
given an installer from the advertiser which we run during the
installation of Grokster. We have no access to the source code of
these third-party installers and so we rely on what our advertisers
say these programs do. To the best of our knowledge, this particular
advertiser simply placed a link to a free online lottery on the
desktop. We were never informed that it installed or was a Trojan."
The company has released a utility which it says will remove the
Trojan, and promises to have a clean version of its software available
in a matter of days.
Those who prefer to see to their own Trojan removal need only search
for a hidden directory under their \Windows directory called
\Explorer. Simply delete the \Windows\Explorer directory, along with
the companion file Dlder.exe in the \Windows directory.
The Trojan is not destructive, but does phone home to the ClickTilUWin
Web site with user data which, presumably, is used for marketing
purposes, or is perhaps forwarded to RIAA headquarters to assemble a
database of copyright scofflaws.
