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Has MacUpdate fallen to the adware plague?

M

Michaelgtrusa

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 13, 2008
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Macupdate warning!!! https://blog.malwarebytes.org/news/2015/11/has-macupdate-fallen-to-the-adware-plague/

Appcleaner is the first i've seen. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25276/appcleaner
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I'll go to MacUpdate to read the user reviews, but I don't download from there. Alot of times they don't have the most recent version of an app, or at least it can take them awhile to update. I download either directly from the developer's website or from the MAS.
 
Michaelgtrusa said:
Macupdate warning!!! https://blog.malwarebytes.org/news/2015/11/has-macupdate-fallen-to-the-adware-plague/

Appcleaner is the first i've seen. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25276/appcleanerView attachment 597779 View attachment 597780 View attachment 597781
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To be more specific; the latest version, 3.1, of Appcleaner now comes as a"dmg" file containing an installer. That installer will install Appcleaner and also Mac Booster. I immediately deleted that app and all files I could find easily serching for "booster" and "iobit". However, Malwarebytes found one more file, flagged as adware, and allowed for its deletion.
MacUpdate should not allow such to be posted on their site.
 
Thanks for posting this Michael to get the word out. I saw Mr. Reed's article yesterday and now he is reporting more apps loaded with this adware from MacUpdate.

Screen Shot 2015-11-03 at 7.36.40 AM.png



Sad to see MU go the way of download.com and others with this. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot with this business.

I'm surprised someone like 1Password has not sued these sites for this.
 
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Weaselboy said:
Thanks for posting this Michael to get the word out. I saw Mr. Reed's article yesterday and now he is reporting more apps loaded with this adware from MacUpdate.

View attachment 597808


Sad to see MU go the way of download.com and others with this. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot with this business.

I'm surprised someone like 1Password has not sued these sites for this.
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Can you post a link to that article by Thomas Reed?
Never mind, found it!
 
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jeremysteele said:
Not sure if you're being sarcastic? It was one of the best places to get mac downloads (along with cnet, tucows, etc), before the mac app store came around.

It's sad to see these previously awesome sites go down this dark path.
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I guess I just don't see the point of it when most apps have their own dev websites to download from.
 
Pakaku said:
I guess I just don't see the point of it when most apps have their own dev websites to download from.
Click to expand...

Back in the day (before 2008ish) it was incredibly difficult to get the word out about new software, especially for small developers. Internet marketing was much different. There wasn't a real "official" source of apps like the mac or windows app stores; so these sites were the next best thing. They basically served as a free place to advertise your software, gather user reviews, etc.

(Iirc, Apple did play around with having a small downloads/software section on their site in the early 2000s, but it didn't last long. )
 
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Darn. Agreed that this is a sad day because I've sourced quite a few apps from there. This recent trend of nickle-and-diming just doesn't sit right with me. As everybody says, it doesn't do them any good in the long run. People will just stop downloading from there as a result, and they'll eventually lose more revenue than had they just stayed legit. Some people just seem to be so short-sighted when it comes to cash and don't consider how it may harm their consumers or revenue in the long run (insert mandetory 16GB iPhone/5400RPM iMac comment here).
 
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15805/skype

If you look in the user reviews on the site for Skype there is some discussion of this issue and a comment from the site's editor Joel Mueller acknowledged they are including adware with the installer. I have screen capped some excerpts here.

It appears this installer pulls in the third party adware from some service, so this service could theoretically install whatever it wanted. One user claims this adware installer tried install MacKeeper and Genieo on his system. Not good.

Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 7.02.36 AM.png


Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 7.02.54 AM.png


Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 7.03.16 AM.png


Screen Shot 2015-11-04 at 7.04.14 AM.png
 
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In my opinion, software should be downloaded directly from the developer (whenever possible) instead of through sites like MacUpdate, Cnet and the like. Doing so will (in many cases) cut down the problem of the subject at hand.
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
In my opinion, software should be downloaded directly from the developer (whenever possible) instead of through sites like MacUpdate, Cnet and the like. Doing so will (in many cases) cut down the problem of the subject at hand.
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Right. That's exactly what the problem is. For most of its existence, MacUpdate did exactly that: It gave you a link to the official developer site. Google might be full of spammy links, CNet was a wretched hive, but MacUpdate could be trusted to give you the one, true, official download location.

The fact that we're now using MacUpdate and CNet in the same sentence makes this a very sad day.
 
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CreatorCode said:
MacUpdate could be trusted to give you the one, true, official download location.
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Perhaps now MacRumors should spend a little time trying to figure out how to monetize that function. It can be awful hard to find the website of the developer with the App that does that 'one weird thing' you want to do on your Mac.
Apple's put some pretty strict limits on the AppStore, and there's a lot of good stuff that will never make it through their gateway.
 
Yep, MacUpdate has joined the ever-growing ranks that want to turn the Mac experience into the Windows experience. I have just emailed our entire school-district instructing them to no longer use MacUpdate as a source for safe Mac software after having to clean Malware off one system on which a staff-member installed what should have been a perfectly safe software package download from MacUpdate. Bye bye MacUpdate! Actually, I think I'll just add it to the web filter too!... Done. MacUpdate just lost an entire school district.

(For those who wonder why MacUpdate was such a good resource: You always got the actual product you were looking for. It was a great place to research and find software. Until today it was a place I told everyone they could go and feel reasonably safe downloading Apple software. Never again.)
 
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Since I flatly refuse to use MAS, MacUpdate has been my place to find new, sensible software that I might be interested in. However, the trend for developers to use MAS exclusively for downloads has blunted MacUpdate's usefulness somewhat.

With this latest move, MacUpdate has been reduced to an info site only, for me.
 
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MacUpdate has been THE place to check, download, and even discuss Mac software and new versions for many years (has been around since 1996). I have always favoured developers' original websites for downloading and buying software, which MacUpdate gladly redirected to, and use MAS only if I have no other choice. But if there is a choice between buying a non-MAS version and MAS version of an application I will ALWAYS select the first. For too many reasons.

Nevertheless, Mac users were spoiled believing that they would never regress to the lame download websites Windows always had. But some saw that coming. And it is a recent trend on the industry as well. If it was money they needed they could ask the community, their user=customer base. At least they could be open about it.

It appears that they have erased the reporting comments in their Skype thread/review, which is even more lame. Looks like they are greedy. If this is the case, please spread the word here and everywhere else. People should know.
 
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