uTorrent Marked as Trojan by Avast Antivirus

Written by Ernesto on April 28, 2008 

Thousands of uTorrent users got a worrying message from their antivirus software recently. Their favorite BitTorrent client was recognized as a trojan by Avast, and deleted form their computers. Attempts to redownload the software from uTorrent.com resulted in the same trojan warning.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with uTorrent. The application somehow got listed in Avast’s list of trojans, resulting in a false positive. uTorrent 1.7.7 was mistakenly listed as “Win32:Poison-DU [Trj]“, whereas the newer Beta’s were unaffected.

Such ‘false positives’ often happen with other harmless applications - better safe than sorry- but since uTorrent doubled its user base in just 12 months and is installed on millions of computers, this problem affected a sizable number of people. It didn’t take long before the issue was reported to Avast, and after approximately 5 hours the problem was fixed.

Earlier this week it became clear that uTorrent’s WebUI (+ Azureus and TorrentFlux) were vulnerable to several exploits. Apparently the vulnerabilities in the webUI, allow outsiders to take over uTorrent and download random content onto one’s system.

uTorrent developer Greg Hazel told TorrentFreak that he is aware of the issue and working on a fix. For now, the BitTorrent client itself is perfectly safe and secure.

utorrent trojan

Previously: Pivotal Canadian BitTorrent Showdown Looming

Next: Book Authors See BitTorrent As a Promotional Tool

71 Responses

Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All

26 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:08 by Strontium Dog

[quote comment="362088"]Yay, first.

I really have nothing to add to the article though. Glad the problem was fixed.[/quote]

Dimbulb wanker…

27 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:10 by Dubya Doofus

[quote comment="362131"]—————————————————————————————-
Ever wanted FAST *CHEAP* FTP axx to all the latest kiddiepr0n??
—————————————————————————————-

Nows your chance!!

—————————-
fuckhead@hush.com
—————————-[/quote]

Fuck off with the spam, cunter…

28 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:12 by Merkin

[quote comment="362177"]
[...]all the Bittorrent’s clients are pure shit.
[...] I prefer Azureus.[/quote]

… which you yourself have just called “pure shit” - congratulations.

Autolame Grade: B-

(What is this - fuckhead day on TF?)

29 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:13 by Tard SPNAKer!

[quote comment="362217"][quote comment="362204"][quote comment="362178"]NOD32 is so much better and it doesnt hog your resources like a lot of others…[/quote]
Yeah, NOD32 is also the best to use with uTorrent. I’ve used AVG and I never got a good connection; DHT also made a lot of trouble. Since I’m using NOD32, my connection is always green and the download speed is improved :)[/quote]

avg doesnt manage your firewall so whats that gotta do with your connect?[/quote]

Nothing. He’s a tard…

30 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:25 by Rycon

best antivirus is no antivirus.. only noobs get viruses.

seriously im not kidding.

if your comp gets fucked then its useless to try and repair it anyway, its still always going to be fucked up in some weird way. Sure alot of viruses can be fixed and cleaned, but sooner or later it just gets fucked up and its faster to reformat then figure out what the hell is wrong.

sadly, with windows systems, reformat is always the best choice. you can get it so fast now you can reformat a computer to a complete backup in under 10 mins.

Hirens + fast USB + ghost image = fast recovery

31 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:38 by Anonymous

Thanks for the non-news.

32 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:51 by stuckmoto

You can get version 1.6.1 @ filehippo.com.

AVG will spot some apps as trojans, but I think it’s the best free one.
McAfee - Norton - NOD32 - AVAST = tried them all -
YES they do suck!

33 Apr 28, 2008 at 16:56 by Lachtan

Avast sucks, but I’m still using it.
You just gotta know what kind of file you just scanned and also download source of that file.
When you are aware of these you can stay calm…

34 Apr 28, 2008 at 17:04 by someone

fix the typo, form to from :D

35 Apr 28, 2008 at 17:32 by zarathustra

+1 for AVG ;)

36 Apr 28, 2008 at 17:56 by Android

[quote comment="362152"]Lol only fags use Avast[/quote]
Only fags download copyrightin material.

37 Apr 28, 2008 at 19:09 by tux

lol get better anti virus.. avg or nothing….!!!! who ever made that antivirus should maybe fix it!

38 Apr 28, 2008 at 19:28 by SID

Meh, just a false positive.

39 Apr 28, 2008 at 19:49 by Hello!

WTF flagging the most used bittorrent client as a trojan LOL. Minus sales for the AVAST turds !

40 Apr 28, 2008 at 20:01 by SID

False positives happenes (sp?) all the time.

Comodo
Icesword
Gmer
Avast
Etc, etc.

41 Apr 28, 2008 at 20:03 by Anonymous

[quote comment="362330"][quote comment="362152"]Lol only fags use Avast[/quote]
Only fags download copyrightin material.[/quote]

ok, i will responde, in anger, brainless, to some wannabe weekend internet warrior…..or not. long live the pirate bay.

42 Apr 28, 2008 at 20:42 by Oops

[quote comment="362422"]WTF flagging the most used bittorrent client as a trojan LOL. Minus sales for the AVAST turds ![/quote]

Problem! Avast home edition is free.

43 Apr 28, 2008 at 21:05 by anon

[quote comment="362152"]Lol only fags use Avast[/quote]
so true nod32 ftw

44 Apr 28, 2008 at 21:08 by SID

Comodo AV said the Fraps.exe has a trojan, no matter what version, I dl’d a couple of diferent versionce from diferent cources.

Sorry for the crap spelling!

45 Apr 28, 2008 at 21:13 by Anonymous

[quote comment="362207"]you are all overweight windows users. get lives, put down the sandwich and get a mac.[/quote]

yes, we should all buy an overpriced, un-upgradable, dumbed-down, wanna-be pc with bloated software only available at a special overpriced store.

46 Apr 28, 2008 at 21:17 by dimwittedconsumer

Best way to avoid viruses? Buy shit.

47 Apr 28, 2008 at 22:39 by Bob

[quote comment="362123"]@bob
ur second u dick.[/quote]
Yeah… I got all excited when there was a brand-new article and didn’t refresh.

48 Apr 28, 2008 at 22:40 by RIAA CEO

HAHA my email of concern to Avast worked. They believed me and accepted my generous donation.

49 Apr 28, 2008 at 23:46 by pja4008

Consumer reports rated Kaspersky zone alarm and trend micro the best and avg was at the end of the list I’ll go with a non-profit org. that does extensive testing

Pages: « 1 [2] 3 » Show All

Responses are closed

All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.