uTorrent Continues to be Flagged as ‘Severe Threat’ and It’s Not alone

[upnorth]

Content source

https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-continues-to-be-flagged-as-severe-threat-and-its-not-alone-210318/

Popular BitTorrent client uTorrent is again being flagged as problematic by anti-virus vendors. This includes Microsoft's Windows Defender, which simply removes the application from the operating system. According to reports, the software is categorized as 'riskware,' 'malware,' and 'potentially unwanted software.' In addition to uTorrent, rival client qBitTorrent is also facing similar problems.

Over the past few years, uTorrent has been repeatedly flagged as ‘malicious’ software. This issue flared up again recently and at the time of writing several anti-virus tools, including Windows Defender and Malwarebytes, label the torrent client as dangerous. We ran the latest installer through a Virustotal scan which shows that uTorrent is flagged by 19 separate companies. The reasons differ from “riskware,” through “Trojan.BtcMine,” to “bundled installer.” Microsoft, for example, categorizes uTorrent as a “Potentially Unwanted Application” (PUA). In fact, the company has had a dedicated uTorrent page in its malware database for years, labeling the software as a severe threat.

uTorrent Continues to be Flagged as 'Severe Threat' and It's Not alone * TorrentFreak

uTorrent is again being flagged as problematic by anti-virus vendors. Rival client qBitTorrent is also seen as "potentially unwanted software".

torrentfreak.com

 

[sg09]

uTorrent has long become buggy and crappy adware. Pity, because it used to be a lightweight useful tool. Had I to use a dedicated torrent downloader I would now use Transmission or Deluge. These are cross platform, lightweight and free from adwares. However, I nowadays use Free Download Manager for all kind of large download tasks.

 

[Minimalist]

Kaspersky and Emsisoft don't detect it and ESET also doesn't detect it as PUA any more (actual application, don't know about installer)

 

[Venustus]

It tries to install Opera,Mcafee web advisor amongst other things

 

[Minimalist]

Today I installed update and it offered to instal Opera and Avast. I don't mind as long I can uncheck those boxes, but users should be careful what they accept when installing it (or any software).

 

[Stas]

I switch to Tixati years ago when uTorrent start to show ads.

 

[EndangeredPootis]

Considering what torrent clients are capable of doing (i.e illegal downloading of software, which can result in the nastiest of infections) im not surprised they are being flagged.

 

[sg09]

Considering what torrent clients are capable of doing (i.e illegal downloading of software, which can result in the nastiest of infections) im not surprised they are being flagged.

I suppose that's not the reason behind these detections, else all torrent clients would've been detected.

 

[EndangeredPootis]

I suppose that's not the reason behind these detections, else all torrent clients would've been detected.

It is still an possibility thats part of the reason.

 

[Kongo]

qBittorrent still working without any ads/problems.

 

[Arequire]

'Severe threat' is excessive, but if its installer is bundling unrelated software that requires users to opt-out then AV vendors are right to label it as a PUP.

 

[The_King]

Considering what torrent clients are capable of doing (i.e illegal downloading of software, which can result in the nastiest of infections) im not surprised they are being flagged.

You can illegally download software even ransomware with any browser as well so we should not be surprised if they too start be flagged.

I use torrents for my Linux distro downloads and its awesome!