The opinions expressed herein are entirely my own and do not represent the opinions of any other entity with which I am affiliated. Opinions expressed in comments and trackbacks are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect my own point of view.
All works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
© Copyright 2006-2009 MalwareTeks
SpyHunter by Enigma Software Group (ESG) has been receiving quite a bit of attention in the security circles of late.
Spyhunter finds & removes Spyware, Adware, Keyloggers. Prevent credit card theft due to Spyware. Protect your privacy and secure your computer. …
This is what ESG claims SpyHunter can do.
SpyHunter was once listed as a “Rogue” Anti-Spyware Application by Eric Howes on his
Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites list; here is what was said:
Enigma’s SpyHunter anti-spyware application was listed on this page primarily because of the company’s history of employing aggressive, deceptive advertising. The company was also known for exploiting the name “spybot” in its domain names and online advertising. These objectionable business practices were employed primarily from late-2002 to mid-2004.
Sometime during summer of 2004 the company halted the most obnoxious and objectionable aspects of its online advertising. It also unloaded all the “spybot” domains (which were promptly picked up by Paretologic for its XoftSpy anti-spyware application).
While there are still unresolved allegations that SpyHunter transmits the Windows Product ID from users’ PCs, we can no longer classify this application as “rogue/suspect.” Nonetheless, SpyHunter — at least in its current state — cannot be recommended because of its mediocre performance as an anti-spyware scanner. Testing indicates that it does not recognize some well-known spyware installations and has difficulty removing critical spyware/adware files even from those it does recognize. Given the many excellent competing anti-spyware applications that are available (some for free), users would do better looking elsewhere for trustworthy anti-spyware protection.
Domains: enigmasoftwaregroup.com, spywareremove.com, uninstallxupiter.com
In recent days it has come to light that someone has been posting spam links to SpyHunter. Individuals from 411-spyware.com have posted on several forums, misleading people seeking help in removing SpyLocked and similar rogue applications, with links to this FreeSpywareScanner. When you go to install the FreeSpywareScanner it becomes readily apparent that the tool being installed is the former “Rogue” Anti-Spyware Application SpyHunter.
It is precisely this type of behavior that got SpyHunter listed as a Rogue Application in the first place. Well it seems that the makers of Spybot Search & Destroy think SpyHunter is Malware. As of 11 April 2007 with the release of Spybot S&Ds updates SpyHunter is now listed as Malware and is targeted for removal.
Updates 11. April 2007 2007-04-11
Adware
++ Zango.AntiSpamBar ++ Zango.Seekmo
Keylogger
+ Perfect Keylogger (2) ++ WideStep
Malware
++ Free-Key-Logger + InetLoader + Smitfraud-C. (2) + SpyDawn + SpyHunter ++ Win32.Agent.ahd ++ Win32.Optix.b
Trojan
+ 1und1Bill.Fake + Hupigon + NumbSoft + Win32.Lager.aq ++ Zlob.MovieBox + Zlob.PrivateVideo + WarezP2P
Total: 373599 fingerprints in 64879 rules for 2804 products
To answer my own question: SpyHunter, should this be listed as a Rogue Anti-Spyware Application?
YES
For further coverage of this story:
411-spyware.com - The new forum spammers?
Spyware Help: Intent Matters Alot:Part 2
XHTML:
More Options ...
Categories
Tag Cloud
Blog RSS
Comments RSS
Void « Default
Life 
Earth 
Wind 
Water 
Fire Light
Previous: 
Next: 
Comment Meta:
Last 50 Posts 
Back
8:18 pm - April 12th, 2007
[...] Read more at ShadowPuterDude [...]
5:50 pm - May 20th, 2007
[...] MalwareTreks: SpyHunter, should this be listed as a Rogue Anti-Spyware Application? [...]
1:37 pm - April 28th, 2008
I have download spyhunter from enigmasoftware, i got my PC very slow, i scanned my pc with Spybot,
and he detected Spyhunter a a Malware a FAKE anti-spyware product!!!!
11:22 am - September 7th, 2008
Seems as of today that http://www.enigmasoftware.com is no longer responding ……….. there is a ‘problem loading page’; this follows a refusal of the product to run on a previously OK machine, so no support there then. (9-sept-08).
1:55 pm - September 7th, 2008
Their site is loading just fine. May have just been a temporary problem.
12:16 pm - September 10th, 2008
Most probably u have updated spybot. spybot had blocked the site by ammending the hosts file. try ping http://www.enigmasoftware.com. if you have a result of ….127.0.0.1 localhost…. then, it is confirmed that it’s already blocked by hosts file.
7:05 pm - September 10th, 2008
I no longer consider SpyHunter by Enigma Software to be a rogue security application.
In the past year, I have seen none of the activity, that original gave me cause for concern. It would appear that Enigma Software Group has dumped the affiliates responsible for the unethical spamvertising campaign.
I have confirmed that Spybot Search & Destroy, does in fact block Enigma Software’s web page via the Windows Hosts file.
Spybot Search & Destroy adds to following 2 entries in the Hosts file:
127.0.0.1 www.enigmasoftware.com127.0.0.1 enigmasoftware.com
What this does is route all http requests for the above URLs the the Local Host, your computer. Effectively blocking access the Enigma’s web page from your computer.
To take the extraordinary measure of blocking users from accessing the web site of one of your competitor’s via the hosts file; I don’t know about you, but I would label that as anti-competitive behavior by Safer Networking, the makers of Spybot Search & Destroy.
I won’t even began to speculate what Enigma Software Group will do about the actions of Safer Networking, but I will be watching with interest.
5:52 am - November 16th, 2008
I contacted Spybot S&D severel times about there saying of Spyhunter being rogue. They are some idiots. I’m never using Spybot again
I’m the owner of Spyhunter 3 full, and it fixed a big malware problem, IE-antivirus. It also, one time fixed 600 spyware and malware off a persons PC, and believe me, It did fix it. It was a lot faster.
4:22 am - December 8th, 2008
dude,may i’ve it crack please.for spyhunter v3
EDIT:
Normally I would delete a comment of this type; but, not this time.
NO YOU MAY NOT.
Why on God’s green earth would you even for a millisecond believe you wold get an ILLEGAL software crack from a site dedicated to computer security.
I guess you can not read, right there on the left side of the screen is the link to the MalwareTeks Software Piracy Policy. Just to briefly some up our policy. Software Piracy is ILLEGAL, and linking to, posting, or requesting cracks, keygens, and product keys is not tolerated by this site.
Now go buy a legal copy of your software
Your IP address been recorded.
ShadowPuterDude
4:12 pm - December 10th, 2008
man, what a nightmare. First I get automatic windows opening whenever I open a new site in my browser for something called ‘registry defender’ which automatically looks fishy. So I go to look for something to stop this happening and find a recommendation for ’spyhunter’ on a site called 411-spyware.com or some such. So I download their scanning facility and find they want me to pay to actually remove anything. So I searched a bit before actually parting with any cash and thankfully found this little (genuine seeming…) writeup. So now I go to remove the spyhunter scanner and it’s not allowing me to even uninstall it! Anyhow, please, if this is a genuine site which is not intending to infect my computer under the premise of actually protecting it, can you recommend me something which will actually get all this crepe off my pc. I don’t mind paying, just want to get rid of this rubbish.
Thanks,
Sam
7:47 pm - December 10th, 2008
Super AntiSpyware, Malwarebytes AntiMalware, a-squared AntiMalware just to name a few reputable Antimalware applications.