McAfee misreports spyware for Photoshop?

D
Posted By
duffym
May 21, 2004
Views
347
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Hi there.

Forgive me if this question has been asked before – I couldn’t find it in a quick search of the forums.

I just installed McAfee PrivacyService, and during its initial run it detected a couple of what it termed ‘spyware’ programs, namely ‘Absolute Key Logger’ and ‘BossEverywhere’.

Puzzled as to which potentially rogue program installed these – I always thought I was too sharp to install spyware, but hey – I selected deinstalled every program one by one and then reinstalled one by one, running the McAfee program after each (and what a joy that was).

The long and short of it is that McAfee flagged these two ‘spyware’ programs after installing Photoshop CS, and reported them as gone when I deinstalled Photoshop. Strange this is that even running the setup exe without progressing to any of the install screens (via ‘Next’, etc) causes these two programs to appear; cancel the setup at the very first screen and they go away.

I’m left wondering what they might be for? I’m sure they’re there for a good reason but am nonetheless puzzled. I’m confident that my copy of Photoshop CS is legitimate for I bought it online from the Adobe site and downloaded it there and then.

I’d appreciate any thoughts!

With best regards
Michael Duffy
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Chris_Cox
May 21, 2004
Either you got a pirate copy of Photoshop with a bogus installer, or McAfee is confused.
D
duffym
May 21, 2004
Well, Chris, as constructive replies go that wasn’t, much.

Unless Adobe have taken to distributing bogus installers with the online distribution of Photoshop – and I doubt they have – I’d guess that perhaps, yes, McAfee may be misreporting problems.

Strange, though, that it consistently reports these two specific programs for the Photoshop installer. Truth to tell I wondered if the installer loads something relating to the activation mechanism that McAfee misreads (for the record I have no problems with the Adobe activation approach).

With best regards
Michael Duffy
CC
Chris_Cox
May 21, 2004
The reply tells you what you need – our installer doesn’t have any spyware. And if you do have a legal version, then the only things left are McAfee making a mistake or something else on your system is messing with the spyware (like a modified system DLL).

In either case, you probably need to contact McAfee about it.
MM
Mick_Murphy
May 21, 2004
Michael

Have a look at the link below. No sign of either of those on this list. I’d guess McAfee is confused.

<http://www.spywareguide.com/product_list_full.php>
D
duffym
May 21, 2004
Mick,

Thanks for the useful link. McAfee’s doubtless confused (which makes for two of us). Just for safety’s sake I’ll install a clean Windows machine – I have a spare PC – and only load Photoshop on top, along with McAfee of course. If McAfee continues to report as it has then I can rest assured my main laptop isn’t carrying another rogue program, as Chris suggests (anything’s possible).

I never really thought Photoshop was spywared, but was curious to know if anyone else had experienced the same issue with McAfee. I could of course contact McAfee but don’t really want to play the vendor bouncing game.

With best regards
Michael Duffy
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
May 21, 2004
Michael,

If you’re feeling rather determined to figure this out, you might also try downloading Spybot Search & Destroy ( <http://www.safer-networking.org> ) and running it to see if it reports the same spyware being present as McAfee does. Spybot S&D is a quite good tool and I know that some spyware finder apps will miss something that another detects. Meanwhile, if the same or similar results are reported by each, then I’d be less inclined to think there is a problem with either, and that they are both just reporting a "false positive". I’d rather have that occur, than learn that something was totally ignored when it shouldn’t have been.

Regards,

Daryl
D
duffym
May 21, 2004
Daryl,

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded Spybot and tried it on my laptop. I fired up the Photoshop CS installer and ran McAfee’s PrivacyService – sure enough, it cried wolf. Spybot however came up clean.

One to put down to McAfee being over-zealous I guess – however I feel better for the extra check, thanks again for helping.

With best wishes
Michael Duffy
J
Jim
May 21, 2004
Most people turn off virus checkers because they tend to make false reports about product installation.
Jim
wrote in message
Hi there.

Forgive me if this question has been asked before – I couldn’t find it in
a quick search of the forums.
I just installed McAfee PrivacyService, and during its initial run it
detected a couple of what it termed ‘spyware’ programs, namely ‘Absolute Key Logger’ and ‘BossEverywhere’.
Puzzled as to which potentially rogue program installed these – I always
thought I was too sharp to install spyware, but hey – I selected deinstalled every program one by one and then reinstalled one by one, running the McAfee program after each (and what a joy that was).
The long and short of it is that McAfee flagged these two ‘spyware’
programs after installing Photoshop CS, and reported them as gone when I deinstalled Photoshop. Strange this is that even running the setup exe without progressing to any of the install screens (via ‘Next’, etc) causes these two programs to appear; cancel the setup at the very first screen and they go away.
I’m left wondering what they might be for? I’m sure they’re there for a
good reason but am nonetheless puzzled. I’m confident that my copy of Photoshop CS is legitimate for I bought it online from the Adobe site and downloaded it there and then.
I’d appreciate any thoughts!

With best regards
Michael Duffy

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