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Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 1 of 18

SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

There is a "SiteAdvisor for Chrome" available for download from the Google Chrome Extensions list. This has been downloaded by over 16,000 people so far, and I was one of them. What you get is not exactly SiteAdvisor. It dates from 2008, and is "based on McAfee SiteAdvisor". If you have this version of SiteAdvisor installed, I would advise that you uninstall it and re-download SiteAdvisor from McAfee, which should add in the latest Chrome-compatible version (currently 3.3.1.133).

This download is at https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/dckheglehcdhpjkdmmmghbgkcdebhhae

The dev.ext download Home Page is at http://www.brothersoft.com/publisher/chrome.dev.ext.html

"chrome.dev.ext" resolves to Brothersoft.com. Their home page is at http://www.brothersoft.com

See also http://www.brothersoft.com/info/about/ and http://www.brothersoft.com/publisher/chrome.dev.ext.html

Brothersoft has a poor reputation. Plenty of allegations of malware in their downloads, although Norton SafeWeb and SiteAdvisor rate the site as safe.

http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/brothersoft.com

http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?name=brothersoft.com

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/brothersoft.com

Google SafeBrowsing for Brothersoft says there are/were 15 Trojans on 9 pages (out of 3237 on the site).

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=brothersoft.com

Someone has posted a short but scathing article about Brothersoft on Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothersoft.com.

The good reviews on SA are all suspiciously similar. Read a few and you'll notice it after a while.

Brothersoft is apparently a Chinese site offering free downloads, games, much of it free. Also comes with added toolbars and (sometimes) Trojans.

http://www.technonsense.com/2010/12/the-brothersoft-scam/

Having issued the above warnings, I do not think that there is anything malicious about this Chrome extension. It does a reasonable job of warning about unsafe sites, although it lacks many of the features that SiteAdvisor has in other browsers and seems to be an inferior version of the full McAfee product.

17 Replies
ConorD62
Former Member
Message 2 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

That's why everything looked stupid with that SiteAdvisor,

It's from 2008. -.-

This is the same download you linked me to download, and it could have been potentially malicious?

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 3 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

I just installed Chrome to see if it would pick up my already installed SiteAdvisor and it has.

SiteAdvisor - Version: 3.3.1.133

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 25/04/11 7:49:00 EDT PM
Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 4 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

Same download, I'm afraid. But I don't think it's malicious - I checked the HTML and Javascript that comprise this extension, and there's nothing I saw to ring alarm bells. The bad ratings seem to be because Brothersoft is a download portal, and doesn't check too closely what's in their 3rd-party downloads.

This SA extension is what it says - "Based on SiteAdvisor". It links to the current SA pages, but it's a drastically cut-down and simplified interface designed to give the bare minimum of functionality. The whole download is about 5K, which gives a good idea of its limitations.

I took it at face value because I trusted Google not to allow anything malicious to be offered as a browser extension, and because this was what was a search for SiteAdvisor in Chrome returned as the only offering.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 5 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

It installs as an additional extension to my already proper version of SA so I end up with 2 versions..   I just left a rude comment.  I'm surprised at Google accepting something that is such a blatant infringement of copyright.

Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 6 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

Extension uninstalled, SiteAdvisor 3.3.1.133 re-installed, system rebooted. Chrome now has the real McCoy once again, with a full range now of colour-coded symbols (SA and WOT) in Google search results.

I feel I owe an apology to Conor for misleading him when he was having all those problems with SA and Chrome a while back.  I still don't know what was behind those problems, but at least the latest SA seems to work fine in Chrome.

Edit. Although oddly, the WOT symbols now appear twice beside each result in a search list - once for the site, but also for SiteAdvisor.

Message was edited by: Hayton on 26/04/11 02:09:20 IST
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 7 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

To be honest, until you said that wasn't the real mccoy I didn't even think of checking what version is used in Chrome as until today I hadn't even downloaded Chrome anyway.

Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 8 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

Small correction about Chrome SA - the version I see in the Extensions list is 3.31.137.7

Security Center/Navigation/About shows 3.3.1.133, dated two days ago.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 9 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

I noticed that discrepancy and put it down to a Chrome display glitch.

ConorD62
Former Member
Message 10 of 18

Re: SiteAdvisor 1.0.2 for Chrome

Still without SA for Chrome, where should I go to get it?

I remember my Total Protection told me I was slacking in Web Security when I fully uninstalled SA, But it's on Firefox, but I don't know how to get it back on Chrome.

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