Windows 10: CCleaner: A Vast Number of Machines at Risk

I agree, with CC and recently Kaspersky AntiVirus I have made decisions for myself, which many users in these forums disagree with. It's all personal judgment and none of us seem to be perfect in that lol. None of the apps are perfect either, I guess.

 

What Piriform should have done was as soon as they analyzed the malicious code and took necessary action in mitigating the hack, they should have made an announcement that day to inform their users. They did not. They waited almost a week. This leaves the impression that if this issue did not come to light, they would have quietly swept this under the rug. In fact, when version 3.4 was released there was no mention of any security bugs that were fixed in their release notes.

 

Equifax got hacked earlier in year too. Then again, and didn't say a word. I don't feel piriform really did something bad here.

 

Got my latest up dates and turned CC back on. Stuff happens. They fixed it, life moves on.

 

I hate to tell you but you are wrong. If you installed version 5.33 in a 32 bits system, you got infected, regardless of whether you were using an AV or not. The only thing that kept users from getting infected was if you were using 64 bits Windows or didn't install CCleaner 5.33.

Myself, I dont use antivirus or any anti this type of programs and run as an administrator and didn't get infected. Why not? Because I got lucky. My W10 is 64 bits and I never got to install version 5.33, I am still using version 5.32 in that computer. And in my W7 32 bits laptop, I am still using version 5.27. Other than my W10 being 64 bits, the one thing that helped me stay away from getting infected is that I have the habit of not updating CCleaner every time a new version comes out. I update CCleaner about 3 or 4 times a year. *Smile

Bo

 

Bo,

Understood. In this case, it was too new and AV wasn't catching it.

My general point i was trying to make is that common sense and only visiting trustworthy websites would not have been enough here. Even though piraform is usually safe, this time it wasn't.

 

Hi pparks1, I haven't used an AV in a long time, I dont even use on demand scanners and learned how to handle security without using anything but one program, and NoScript for browsing. But this CCleaner infection is one case where I would have been infected if I had installed 5.33 in my 32 bits W7 and none of what I do for protection, would have protected me. Kind of scary. So, in a way, we agree. I always kind of felt safe downloading from the developers site but this case here and others like it make it obvious that from now on, not even that is safe. I install very few programs, the lesser the better, that's part of my security approach but you need to update sometimes.

By the way, I never mention common sense when I talk about running without AV, to me personally, it has nothing to do with what keeps me safe. One thing I can tell you though, I visit all kind of sites, nasty sites to stream live sports, and they are bad. Thankfully, I use NoScript, NS tame the sties. I read someone here in another thread talking about the internet being like "Shark infected waters". And it is if your security depends on antiviruses and that kind of programs to protect yourself. In my case, the sharks in those waters became sardines, they dont do nothing to you. Thats what NoScript those for me, it allows me to visit nasty, not trustworthy sites and come out smelling like a rose.

Bo

 

Agreed.

IMO, people who surf the Internet without some type of Flash/script blocker are asking for trouble.

 

Look's like it was a targeted attack

Source:
Cisco's Talos Intelligence Group Blog: CCleaner Command and Control Causes Concern

 

CCleaner Hack Carried Out In Order to Target Big Tech Companies

 

I believe the decision is up to the individual user - either use CC or don't use it. I plan to continue using it but that is my personal decision. I did the same with Kaspersky - made my personal decision and moved on. With all the earthquakes and hurricanes tearing up the lives of so many, this seems a little trivial anyway.

 

Funny but every time I update CC Cleaner, I keep the old installation file. Yesterday Windoze Defender reported that the .33 version of the installer was infected, and removed it for me! How handy. Fortunately I also upgraded several times since then with newer versions, plus I'm 64 bit here. I thought it was funny that Windoze Defender finally flagged it!