McAfee Warning

General Discussion
1

Hi,
I watched the demo of Avagadro on Showmedo and found it really
impressive. I went to the Avagadro download page to download it using
the Windows MSI, but it was flagged by my McAfee antivirus as a
potentially dangerous download, containing adware, spyware or other
dangerous program. Can anyone give me a reason for this?

Thanks,

Tim

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the Windows MSI, but it was flagged by my McAfee antivirus as a
potentially dangerous download, containing adware, spyware or other
dangerous program. Can anyone give me a reason for this?

I have no idea. First question… does McAfee give a name to this supposed dangerous program (i.e., both the particular exe name and the flag “spyware name” given by McAfee?) We just heard from someone that when they compiled Avogadro, their anti-spyware program falsely flagged one of the programs as a trojan.

Second question… where did you download Avogadro? I’d like to make sure someone isn’t “poisoning” the downloads.

Thanks very much,
-Geoff

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On 03/10/2010 02:21, Geoffrey Hutchison wrote:

I have no idea. First question… does McAfee give a name to this supposed dangerous program (i.e., both the particular exe name and the flag “spyware name” given by McAfee?) We just heard from someone that when they compiled Avogadro, their anti-spyware program falsely flagged one of the programs as a trojan.

Second question… where did you download Avogadro? I’d like to make sure someone isn’t “poisoning” the downloads.

Thanks very much,
-Geoff
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for the reply. I was downloading the Windows MSI from
http://avogadro.openmolecules.net/wiki/Get_Avogadro , which I assume is
the official site. It was flagged by McAfee Site Advisor with a red
warning screening headed: “Potentially Dangerous Download Detected!” The
small print then stated “In our tests, this download contained programs
some people would consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted
program.”
The option is then given to Download Anyway or Block Download. No
other information is given by McAfee.
When I clicked ‘Download Anyway’ the download commenced, but was then
blocked again by the same warning screen. I had to click ‘Download
Anyway’ again to continue the download.
I then right clicked the exe file and scanned it with McAfee, but no
issues were then detected, but I was a bit concerned about running the
exe anyway. If you are happy that the Download is safe, I’m happy. I’m a
chenistry teacher and would love to use Avogadro. I watched the demo on
ShowMeDo and the graphics were breathtaking.
It would be great to be able to use it.

Thanks again,
Tim

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http://avogadro.openmolecules.net/wiki/Get_Avogadro , which I assume is
the official site.

Yes, that’s perfect. We also have a nice big “download” button on the main homepage which will download Mac, Windows, or Linux if you have JavaScript enabled on your browser.

It was flagged by McAfee Site Advisor with a red warning screening headed: “Potentially Dangerous Download Detected!” The
small print then stated “In our tests, this download contained programs some people would consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted
program.”

I don’t know how McAfee comes to this conclusion. IIRC, they have a mechanism where a user reports a supposed unwanted program and they start blocking it. For example, Softpedia gives Avogadro a “100% Safe” recommendation:

If you are happy that the Download is safe, I’m happy. I’m a chemistry teacher and would love to use Avogadro. I watched the demo on
ShowMeDo and the graphics were breathtaking. It would be great to be able to use it.

Yes, the download is safe. The source code is available for anyone to check and compile their own copy. With a few exceptions, you can run Avogadro without access to the network. (The exceptions are the features where you search and download chemicals by name.)

We would never collect user information, display any advertising, etc. Time is short – when would I have time to write code like that?

I hope you like Avogadro – please let us know what you think.

Best regards,
-Geoff

Prof. Geoffrey Hutchison
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
University of Pittsburgh
http://hutchison.chem.pitt.edu/
Office: (412) 648-0492