[important]UPDATE (22nd December, 2012): Please read through the associated comments under this article. As you can see, this software developer has offered an explanation of the issues associated with his software, it seems pretty obvious that he made an honest error in judgement and has now taken steps to rectify the situation. I have re-checked the software available from Classle Soft and all titles now scan 100% clean through Virus Total, plus locally through Avast and Malwarebytes.[/important]
I recently earmarked a freeware from Classle Soft called ‘Text to MP3 Converter’ with a view to testing the software and publishing a review. Came time to commence the testing and, as always, the very first step is to scan the downloaded file through Virus Total. Unfortunately, 7 anti-virus engines flag the file for malware. You can view the scan results HERE.
I might add that the Classle Soft site has yet to be rated by either WOT or McAfee Site Advisor, which suggests the site and associated freeware must be pretty new. No guidance there so, as a follow up, I decided to investigate and check other freeware offerings from Classle Soft myself; here are the results:
ClassleSoft Extension Changer: Strangely, this one is not mentioned anywhere on the Classle Soft home site even though it is freely available via external download sites. A scan through Virus Total reveals 7 reports of malware.
ClassleSoft Candy Font: Scanning through Virus Total reveals 2 instances of reported malware.
ClassleSoft Eye Pro: Scanning through Virus Total came up 100% clean.
Listings on external download sites, such as Softpedia, also include warnings that Classle Soft freeware comes bundled with the Babylon Toolbar.
The strange thing with Text to MP3 Converter is that an earlier version of the software actually scanned clean, the initial version download was 1.26MB but the updated version, which is the one I was preparing to test and is flagged for malware, weighed in at a heftier 2.0MB. All in all, Classle Soft freeware definitely rings alarm bells. Even though the Eye Pro software currently scans clean, considering all the evidence, I wouldn’t be hurrying to download it.
Hi,
I’m the owner of this website. I accept what you said. This is what that happened at that time. i signed up for a bundling account with “Installmonetizer” and bundled my freeware with their engine. I use AVG antivirus. When i scanned my freewares with AVG (i was not aware of “Virus total” at that time)and results shown that they were clean. Then only i uploaded my files. Later after a month i had seen this post which you have written and i scanned my files with virus total. I was shocked to see the results. Immediately i wrote to “install monetizer” people and informed about this. they said “We are aware of the AV issues that you brought up and our tech team is already working toward resolving them. The only flags that took place in the past were mainly due to the sheer number of advertisers and publishers that run in and out of our system.” (i can show you that mail if you want to see). Then i was disappointed and immediately removed their bundle and uploaded back. I cant undo what happened in past. Now my freewares are absolutely clean. you can test them personally. if you convinced that they were clean now, please update/delete this post. Recently i asked McAfee Site Advisor to test my site and freewares. They said it was clean. Here is the updated report http://www.urlvoid.com/scan/classlesoft.in/
I learned a lesson. I’ll never signup for any bundled software accounts or such nonsense.
Thank you.
Hi Venkat – No problem. will check out your software again and if, as expected, it is now 100% clean I’ll amend this article accordingly.
I’ll do that early next week.
Cheers… Jim
Thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Venkat – I’ve completed the checks and scans, all are fine except for ‘Eye Pro’ which is being flagged by 5 AV engines through Virus Total… see here: https://www.virustotal.com/file/fb0742f33a3be40b8c1a4c5a009d2aaaf544c51929a1722915fc89e7e18a52fe/analysis/1356033218/
Any ideas why that may be??
Okay, all software from this developer now scans 100% clean; through Virus Total and locally through Avast and Malwarebytes.
Thank you.