Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Adware:Win32/opencandy

Feb 22, 2011 10:12AM PST

Haven't seen any other posts in this forum yet but MSE forums have had a few regarding posible false positives with this detection. My weekly Sunday scan picked up a couple of these in installer packages I had sitting around, one of which was CNET TechTracker(version 1.1.3.1.55) I had never installed this version but out of curousity I attempyed to download version 2.01. My recommended actions for MSE is Quarantine everything no matter what risk level assesment it has so CNET TechTracker was automatically quarantined. The saeadwarewas aslo detected in WECP setup.exe and ATI Tray Tools setup.exe. Here's what Microsoft Malware/Threat Encyclopedia has to say about it,


http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Threat/Encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?name=Adware%3aWin32%2fOpenCandy&threatid=159633

Here a thread concerning CDBurnerXP setup.exe and a false positive sumission report to MS,

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msescan/thread/f24e69ee-d6c7-4c11-a463-92bf55a5c074

THought someone here may like to respond to this issue. I for one would like to know CNET's take on this and why this would be included it the TechTracker software anyways, from the MS description I certainly want no part of it.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Adware:Win32/opencandy found by WindowsDefender & ZoneAlarm
Feb 22, 2011 11:24PM PST

both WindowsDefender and ZoneAlarm Extreme Security has flagged the download file for WECPsetup.exe 3.3 from CNET today 02/23/2011 as containing ADWARE:OpenCandy. I will not install it. I am surprised to find that CNET allows malware to be redistributed. I thought all software downloads were checked for malware and potential viruses by CNET before giving the okay to subscribers.

- Collapse -
Kindly Read the Thread at Spyware, Viruses & Security
Feb 23, 2011 2:43AM PST
- Collapse -
It appears to be in CutePDF as well.
Feb 24, 2011 3:11AM PST

My prediction is that they may write off OpenCandy.
Bob

- Collapse -
CNET TechTracker and Adware detection
Feb 23, 2011 9:43AM PST

Hello TechTracker Users!

We've recently become aware of an issue with part of the TechTracker installer that is causing the software to be detected by some security applications as adware.

This error is caused by the inclusion of an OpenCandy offer for additional software that's part of our installer. We are working with our partners at OpenCandy on a resolution.

We take the privacy and security of our users very seriously and will provide additional information about this issue as it becomes available.

- CNET TechTracker Support

- Collapse -
Update: CNET TechTracker and Adware detection
Mar 9, 2011 3:16AM PST

Hello TechTracker Users!

I just wanted to post an update to this issue that was raised recently here in the forums. As I stated previously, we have worked with OpenCandy to address the issue of our installer being flagged as adware by some security software. We have also updated our installer so this will no longer occur. The OpenCandy component in the installer should no longer trigger adware warnings.

If you're interested in reading additional information about what happened and how the issue was resolved, you can read OpenCandy's post about it here: http://www.opencandy.com/2011/03/04/the-story-behind-the-opencandy-and-microsoft-adware-debacle/

We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused. Thanks for your patience as we resolved the issue, and your continued use of CNET TechTracker.

- CNET TechTracker Support