Google Chrome is blocking all downloads from Portable Apps

[silversurfer]

Google Chrome is blocking all downloads from the third-party website Portable Apps currently and returning "dangerous" as the reason for that.

Portable Apps is a popular destination for downloading Windows applications that don't need to be installed. The site maintains a large list of programs for Windows that users from all over the world may download; this includes portable versions of programs that don't support one officially.

Google Chrome users who attempted to download applications from Portable Apps in the past couple of days noticed that the integrated Safe Browsing feature of the browser was blocking downloads. Chrome blocked the download and returned "dangerous" as the reason.

Downloads in other browsers continue to work. Firefox, which uses a special version of Google's Safe Browsing, downloads files just fine. Brave, which uses Google Safe Browsing, blocks the download just like Chrome. Microsoft Edge warns users that the files are not commonly downloaded, but does not flag the downloads as malicious. Other browsers may display warnings or allow downloads directly.

Chrome displays one main action -- delete -- in the browser's download panel after starting a download from Portable Apps. A click on the tiny arrow on the right of it displays information and an option to keep the download.

The box "I understand this download will harm my computer" needs to be checked before the continue download button becomes active. The frightening message is overshooting it this time, as the downloaded programs test fine on Google's Virustotal service. There may be a small number of false positives, but all major antivirus engines do not detect threats in the downloaded files.

Portable Apps has begun to redirect downloads to SourceForge for the time being to allow Chrome users to download files unhindered.

A post on the official site reveals additional information on the issue. According to the post, Portable Apps noticed the issue on July 23, 2022 for the first time. The operators have requested a review of the issue, but have not heard back yet from Google.

It appears that they have contacted third-party antivirus vendors as well, which flagged files as problematic on VirusTotal.

It is unclear right now why Safe Browsing is flagging the files, but they don't appear to be malicious. The issue is likely going to be sorted out in the near future.

Google Chrome is blocking all downloads from Portable Apps - gHacks Tech News

Google Chrome is blocking all downloads from the third-party website Portable Apps currently and returning the "dangerous" reason for that.

www.ghacks.net

 

[show-Zi]

I download and use some software such as Firefox from PortableApp. From a strict point of view, I think it can't be helped if it is judged gray because it is unofficial.
What makes me wonder a little is that some software that officially distributes portable versions also exists in PortableApps.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Downloads From PortableApps.com Working Again

Previously, we posted that Google Safe Browsing Is Incorrectly Blocking All Downloads From PortableApps.com. Google has still not responded despite it being longer than their 72hr promised turnaround. In researching and testing, it seems that based on a single false positive in a single file, Google Safe Browsing blocked all downloads being passed through our site's redirector which keeps stats on how many downloads of each app occur. This applied to download regardless of where they were hosted and regardless of what the file was. I've implemented a change to the redirector to separate it out from the current false positive block and it appears working across all app downloads, both open source and freeware, as well as downloads of utilities and the platform. Please post a comment if you notice anything not working.

I'll continue to monitor the situation and update the original post with progress as well as put together a post-mortem once I hear back from Google and get it fully resolved. I'll also be working through the few day backlog of app updates. My apologies for the inconvenience. And thank you to the folks that helped out with donations as this hit our ad revenue and donation revenue.

Downloads From PortableApps.com Working Again | PortableApps.com

Previously, we posted that Google Safe Browsing Is Incorrectly Blocking All Downloads From PortableApps.com. Google has still not responded despite it being longer than their 72hr promised turnaround. In researching and testing, it seems that based on a single false positive in a single file...

portableapps.com