Specter Pro -- Spyware

  • Thread starter Thread starter G. Morgan
  • Start date Start date
G

G. Morgan

I installed Specter Pro just for kicks (downloaded a torrent) and noticed that
NO AV s/w detects it.

Is there a sweetheart deal with the AV companies to exclude it?

Are there any more commercial spy ware programs that the AV companies decide not
to warn you about?

Are there ANY programs that DO detect and remove it?

Thanks!
 
G. Morgan said:
I installed Specter Pro just for kicks (downloaded a torrent) and noticed that
NO AV s/w detects it.

Is there a sweetheart deal with the AV companies to exclude it?

Are there any more commercial spy ware programs that the AV companies decide not
to warn you about?

Are there ANY programs that DO detect and remove it?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Here is the URL if you are not familiar with it:
http://www.spectorsoft.com/
 
G. Morgan said:
I installed Specter Pro just for kicks (downloaded a torrent) and
noticed that
NO AV s/w detects it.

Is there a sweetheart deal with the AV companies to exclude it?

Are there any more commercial spy ware programs that the AV companies
decide not
to warn you about?

Are there ANY programs that DO detect and remove it?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Not all spyware is malware, just as not all adware is malware. Some
antimalware or antivirus might detect legitimate spyware if you have it
set to alert to potentially unwanted programs (PUP).
 
From: "~BD~" <[email protected]>



| I'd not seen this product before and renewed thoughts prompted by it!

| *What if* ....... ?

| One or more of those 'trusted' malware cleaning forums (or even a
| trusted software programme) could, surely, download such a programme
| onto a user's machine so that, forever afterwards, whatever is done on
| that machine may be monitored by an outside agency.

| From what I have seen by watching computer cleaning activity on many
| forums (and undergoing same personally, for practice purposes!) naive
| folk are invited to install all manner of (to them) unknown programmes -
| which they do without hesitation. They have no clue as to how such
| action may affect their machine later on.

| Lambs to the slaughter, maybe? ;)

Troll, troll... troll.

What if your automobile tire falls off and your car crashes and you die. Will you stop
using your car ?

What if you took your narrow boat on the Themes and you hit a log and puncture your hull
and you drown. Will you stop using your boat ?

What North Korea sends a nuclear tipped ICBM at the UK. Will you build a bomb shelter ?

What if you crossed the street and were hit by a car and died. Will you stop crossing the
street ?

What if your wife sleep walks, picks up a knife and stabbs you as you slept. Would you
divorce your wife ?

What if...

You constantly bring "what ifs..." into the picture is nothing but troll bait.

Is there a point in this post's "what if..." scenario ? No.
 
David H. Lipman said:
Troll, troll... troll.
Click to expand...


David,

Do you know the answer to my question, please? You or Dustin should know since
you guys are the resident experts here, right?
 
From: "G. Morgan" <[email protected]>



| David,

| Do you know the answer to my question, please? You or Dustin should know since
| you guys are the resident experts here, right?


I'm not an expert but, FTR his it on the nose.

You have to be wary about grey area software.

If the software is designed to be spyware and it is publicized as such and the EULA states
the facts then it falls into the grey area of a Potentioally Unwanted Program (PUP).

If you are on an employers computer the employer may install monitoring software that
falls into this grey area. The software is properly stating what it does and the EULA is
in line then it can be used in a lawful fashion. However if a monitoring software has no
disclaimers or falsley states its intentions in a EULA for what it does or if it has no
documentation and use clauses then it can be non-legitimate and thus be declared malware.
 
I installed Specter Pro just for kicks (downloaded a torrent) and noticed that
NO AV s/w detects it.

Is there a sweetheart deal with the AV companies to exclude it?

Are there any more commercial spy ware programs that the AV companies decide not
to warn you about?

Are there ANY programs that DO detect and remove it?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Tharrrr he goes trolling along with his cock in hand and not
a coherent thought in his head to speak of....
Is this the case..I ask myself.

Griffin.
 
David H. Lipman said:
I'm not an expert but, FTR his it on the nose.

You have to be wary about grey area software.

If the software is designed to be spyware and it is publicized as such and the EULA states
the facts then it falls into the grey area of a Potentioally Unwanted Program (PUP).

If you are on an employers computer the employer may install monitoring software that
falls into this grey area. The software is properly stating what it does and the EULA is
in line then it can be used in a lawful fashion. However if a monitoring software has no
disclaimers or falsley states its intentions in a EULA for what it does or if it has no
documentation and use clauses then it can be non-legitimate and thus be declared malware.
Click to expand...


Okay, what about detection? When I played with it I threw Aviva, MBAM, and
Super A/S and .... ziltch.

This is not for a company PC, it's for my own personal PC. And a can't
understand why (as far as I know), nobody has software to detect it.

What other devious key loggers are out there that will provide the owner of his
OWN PC if such (PUP) are installed. And how do I find out if they ARE there?
I'm not the only one with admin rights to my PC, I have a girlfriend (nuf'
said?) lol ...
 
I installed Specter Pro just for kicks (downloaded a torrent) and
noticed that NO AV s/w detects it.
Click to expand...

You may wish to submit it's executables to http://www.virustotal.com
Is there a sweetheart deal with the AV companies to exclude it?
Click to expand...

Not that I know of, no.
Are there any more commercial spy ware programs that the AV companies
decide not to warn you about?
Click to expand...

Again, not that I specifically know of.
Are there ANY programs that DO detect and remove it?
Click to expand...

BugHunter did detect atleast one variant of spectorsoftpro. You may give it
a try...
http://bughunter.it-mate.co.uk
Thanks!
Click to expand...

your welcome.
 
Okay, what about detection? When I played with it I threw Aviva,
MBAM, and Super A/S and .... ziltch.
Click to expand...

If you don't already have an account at the mbam forum, I'd recommend you
create one. Create a fresh thread describing this software and the url
where you obtained it, so that they can acquire samples.

The team will check it out and perhaps add it to future definitions.

Just so you know tho, the spectorsoftpro suite would fall under..
greyware. It's spyware, but discloses this during installation. :)
This is not for a company PC, it's for my own personal PC. And a
can't understand why (as far as I know), nobody has software to detect
it.
Click to expand...

It could just be a newer executable, or simply hasn't been brought to
their respective attentions. The antimalware guys rely on people like you
to bring things to light you feel should be detected. So, bring this to
their attention via the forum.
What other devious key loggers are out there that will provide the
owner of his OWN PC if such (PUP) are installed. And how do I find
out if they ARE there? I'm not the only one with admin rights to my
PC, I have a girlfriend (nuf' said?) lol ...
Click to expand...

To take a guess, probably lots. Some aren't always so straight up about
their intentions either.
 
~BD~ said:
I'd not seen this product before and renewed thoughts prompted by it!

*What if* ....... ?

One or more of those 'trusted' malware cleaning forums (or even a
trusted software programme) could, surely, download such a programme
onto a user's machine so that, forever afterwards, whatever is done on
that machine may be monitored by an outside agency.
Click to expand...

That's not very likely, such a trojan would soon be discovered and dealt
with - very bad for the 'trusted' source's reputation. That's right
there with the old "What if the AV people are writing the viruses?"
conspiracy theory.

I can't think of a legitimate reason, offhand, for surreptitiously
installing spyware. The administrator/owner of a machine can install it
*and* exclude the AV or whatever from alerting someone in userland to
its existence.
 
Hello, G.!

You wrote on Sat, 01 May 2010 17:09:18 -0500:

| Okay, what about detection? When I played with it I threw Aviva, MBAM,
| and Super A/S and .... ziltch.
|
| This is not for a company PC, it's for my own personal PC. And a can't
| understand why (as far as I know), nobody has software to detect it.

Your millage may vary...
 
[...]
This is not for a company PC, it's for my own personal PC. And a
can't
understand why (as far as I know), nobody has software to detect it.
Click to expand...

The *malware* to detect, would be the surreptitious installer (trojan)
of the keylogger. Since you evidently installed it yourself, there *is*
no malware to detect. If this program comes with a way to install it
surreptitiously, then that function (or it's result) *should* be
detected. What you would need in order to prevent one administrator from
being able to detect that the other' has installed spyware is to have
the whole deal on a monitor or hypervisor where one administrates the
"platform" on which both administrators appear to administrate in the
emulated "environment".

Don't worry about malware too much, you've got a
girlfriend/administrator so you're pretty much 'toast' anyway. :oD
 
Thanks, I'm afraid to re-install it right now. I'll wait till it's
time to flatten the OS again.
Click to expand...

Have you considered a free vm software package? You can load your flavor of
windows right into it, apps as well; and they won't hurt your computer
outside of the VM if things go south. Granted, for the purists I do have to
say atleast one known VM aware malware sample exists. It causes the VM to
crash when discovered tho.

Microsofts virtualPC comes to mind, along with suns virtualbox.
virtualbox looked slightly more.. cartoony I guess you could say, than
virtualpc.
 
G. Morgan wrote, about keylogging software:
I'm not the only one with admin rights to my PC, I have a girlfriend
(nuf' said?) lol ...
Click to expand...

If you don't trust her, why does she have an _admin_ account on your
computer?

Solution: upgrade to Girlfriend 2.0
 
~BD~ said:
Thank you for responding FTR! :)
That's not very likely,
Click to expand...

But .... *I* believe that it is *possible*!
********

As I've said elsewhere ..........

"What a super ruse it would be, eh? - to clear a machine of everyone
else's 'nasties' but then, perhaps, leave their own package installed
on the user's machine. No one would ever suspect, would they?"
such a trojan would soon be discovered and dealt
with - very bad for the 'trusted' source's reputation.[...]
Click to expand...

Now this is where we seem to have a *real* difference of opinion, FTR!

Just *who* would discover such covert malware. With today's high-speed
and powerful machines a *user* is highly *unlikely* to discover that
they have become part of a botnet! If their /cleaned/ machine is
performing *better* that it had in a long while, why would the *user*
suspect anything untoward?
Click to expand...

Bigger picture:

Remember the quote about how you can fool some of the people some of the
time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time? Malware like
that relies on the first part of that quote. It doesn't care about the
second part because there is no shortage of fools. Such software does
eventually get discovered, but usually cannot be traced back to a single
source - there are many sources and they change location often. If
someone has a *real firewall* then this type of commercial malware's
activities can soon be discovered.

So asking "who would" is the wrong question - the individual is
insignificant in comparison to the whole. Instead you must ask yourself
if *anybody* would discover the hidden function, and what that would
mean to an otherwise legitimate (contactable) business.
My limited understanding of matters is that once a machine is under
the control of a botmaster, all personal control is effectively lost.

Do you dispute this?
Click to expand...

Yes, but I may be reading it differently than you are. It would depend
on how much control is still afforded you by the nature of the offeding
program.

[...]
I was especially interested in this extract:-

"Because backdoor trojans have the potential to gain such complete
control of a system, and install malicious code that may not be
detectable, it’s wise to consider reformatting any system that’s been
infected."

MAY NOT BE DETECTABLE - Wow! ;-)
Click to expand...

Not to be confused with being "undetectable". :o)

The author is probable talking about what I usually refer to here as
"unknowns". Once you discover that you have a backdoor trojan that is
known to download and execute various and sundry *other* malicious
programs. Various and sundry "may not be detectable" since they are
undefined.
 
You might enjoy life more if you stopped complaining about things over
which you have no control. None whatsoever!

No one *makes* you read what I have to say (there again, maybe you
don't!) and it costs you nothing. Simply ignore me if what I say
offends you.
Click to expand...

....and be sure to announce to the world that you are officially ignoring
his posts. :oD
 
~BD~ said:
Hahaha! :)

Shouldn't you have said that to JD - not to me?!!!
Click to expand...

Sorry for the misunderstanding, it was meant as an unsolicited addendum
to your statement to JD.

Trying to get others to ignore a poster rather than just plain ignoring
a poster seems futile to me. Never have I seen it result in making the
offending poster go away - they just go to another more seemingly lively
group and crosspost back.
 
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