Mysterious appearance of .exe files when attempting to download .dmg files

Here's a baffler: some readers have reported that when attempting to download certain .dmg files, mysterious .exe files are downloaded instead.

MacFixIt reader Ira Altschiller writes:

"Every once in awhile I download a file via Firefox and find an .exe file on my desktop? My downloads are usually updates to current programs or conventional PDFs from Adobe, eg -- pretty standard stuff. My most recent download was the Skype update which - I think - generated this on the desktop: tzk00svq.exe."

One could dismiss this as a mistakenly clicked Windows download, but corroboration from the Apple Discussions board (poster MartijnBaas) mentions a Mac OS X-only download:

"When downloading Safari (from Apple's Safari download page) it downloads as kv92ngz5.exe (with a vague xls [Excel] icon)."

We're still trying to nail down a cause for this odd issue, so if you have experience with it, please let us know.

Resources