Paradox Newsletter Crusader Kings Download contained a Trojan!!!

[grahamh]

The Paradox Forum Newsletter May 2011 contained an offer to download a free copies of Crusader Kings from GamersGate.

The downloader contained a Trojan, which I believed was caught and dealt with by my AntiVirus program. Unfortunately it still managed to send out a series of emails to my hotmail contacts with infected links and adverts for Viagra.

This was not a pleasant experience.

Graham

 

[Planck]

Are you sure it was the download from GamersGate? I downloaded it without a problem and I find it hard to believe so many people downloaded it and did not detect anything. Sometimes Anti-virus programs have warnings that are false positives, so it might be that it 'thought' the downloader was a trojan. The E-mail spam could have been an unrelated occurrence?

 

[grahamh]

I am not 100% certain. My antivirus program, BitDefender Pro, detected a trojan in the download and I deleted it.

As you say the email spam trojan could be from something different. It is just a very strange coincidence. It is years since I last had a virus/trojan on my pc's. To get a genuine attack just a couple of days after being warned about a Trojan from the GamersGate download is a big coincidence.

But I am not certain of the connection.

Graham

 

[Teurlinx]

It just gave me an extra copy of CK + DV on Gamersgate, and I've downloaded the game from there more than once without issues.

I even re-downloaded both now, just in case. Still nothing.

It wouldn't be the first false-positive 'virus detection' I've seen on Gamersgate downloaders btw, they are .exe files which always are 'suspect'. Still never had issues with any of them.

I just checked the fact, and Bitdefender is explicitly listed in it: (link)

BitDefender 2009 stopped the installation due to a virus in the launch file.

Turn off real time protection in BitDefender.

NOTE: Some anti virus applications gives false positives for files in the games. Needless to say, GamersGate got the games directly from developers and publishers and the downloads do NOT include viruses or other malwares.

and:

Virus / trojan detected in the download?

There are NO viruses or trojans in the download. Its likely your anti-virus program having what is called a "false positive". It may have found something in the heuristic search, which is not always 100% accurate. The games are delivered from developers and publishers, so the risk of having an infected download is minimal.



NOTE: For BitDefender you may turn off real time protection.

 

[grahamh]

It would seem to be ok then. However I did search here first before reporting it in this thread. I would suggest that since specific AntiVirus products are mentioned that the Antivirus producer should be contacted. I am sure they would be happy to do something to prevent the false positive. False positives undermine confidence in the owners of the download, and the antivirus software producers.

Turning off real time protection is the last thing a person wants to do, and not something I would normally do for a freebie game.

Regards
Graham

 

[Teurlinx]

Good luck with that, I've googled a little on this problem of Bitdefender with Gamersgate files. It seems to exist at least since 2009 for their users, and somehow they never addressed it.

- edit -

I even stumbled over an amusing article while searching some more :rofl: