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General discussion

Attention Bob Proffit (or any other fans of CWShredder)

Nov 23, 2003 9:25AM PST

I've noted (mainly from Bob, but probably others) that CW Shredder is a 'must have' tool in one's arsenal. I've run it dozens of times, yet I always end up removing Madfinder. I posted my Hijack This file http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=17168&hl= and was directed to this thread
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8563261~root=security,1~mode=flat and (while I don't understand everything discussed) it appears that there is a problem with CWS and Madfinder.

Is this news to any one here (the post is from September of this year)? Can I conclude that CWS is 'not ready for prime time' or do the sages here still recommend it.

If CWS is a faulty product (in your opinion), please let me know and I will stop worrying about madfinder, if you stand by CWS and have any other suggestion as to why I am still finding madfinder, kindly advise.

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Mad about stuff. To the point I followed their advice.
Nov 23, 2003 10:31AM PST

A partial reason (may be others) is that CW, Madfinder and such are exploiting some Java or JavaScript security issues. I took their advice and expelled (that's a deletion with some force) MS Java off the machine. Madfinder ceased to appear.

Remember that MS Java is not being maintained.

Bob

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I removed Microsoft VM (see my thread, I provided the link)
Nov 23, 2003 5:46PM PST

Yet, still get REMOVED next to Madfinder, thus my confusion.

Bear with me on this, I'm still new at this, but can my experience simply be false positives, thus rendering CWS (somewhat) unreliable?

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Re:I removed Microsoft VM (see my thread, I provided the link)
Nov 23, 2003 8:45PM PST

"Bear with me on this, I'm still new at this, but can my experience simply be false positives, thus rendering CWS (somewhat) unreliable?"

You'll have to pester the author about that, but I've found it immensely helpful to expel those bugs. Your issue could be that you visit some hostile web site and it is using Java, Javascript or other to install it again.

This tool is not a "preventer" and doesn't claim to be.

Bob

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After removing
Nov 23, 2003 8:50PM PST

I open browser to Yahoo (home page) and click to (mainly bening reputable sites) and it returns. I'll guess it is a bug to be corrected.

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On the kid's machine, further cleaning was needed.
Nov 23, 2003 9:28PM PST

The kid's machine would open to Yahoo, but I found some ActiveX components would run. Tracking down these pests and ejecting them has cured that one.

Nothing ominous, but similar to your issue. I don't see this as a bug, but a flag that further investigation is needed.

It's your choice on the matter. Mine is to not allow others to install their pests on the machine. On the office and home machines, I'm this short of disabling IE.

Bob

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Bob...
Nov 24, 2003 2:52AM PST

In the DSL thread, it was pointed out that the registry entry that was used to trigger a warning was recreated by WinXP each reboot. You don't need to visit anything to get the warning from CWS. It's a minor bug (false positive). The real problem is the keys installed by malware under that registry entry, not the registry entry itself. He needs to tweak the detection routine.

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Keith
Nov 24, 2003 3:58AM PST

Maybe that's the reason (the bug) on why there's 2 updates today? v1.36 then v1.36.1

Larry should try the latest version to find out if the issue has been fixed Happy

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LarryD, Donna, Keith.
Nov 24, 2003 4:05AM PST

Thanks for all the updates.

But I think it's time to talk turkey.

Bob

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Talk or eat...? :-) Happy Thanksgiving
Nov 24, 2003 12:46PM PST

.

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I think this post says it all...
Nov 23, 2003 10:42AM PST