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PattyP
Contributor
Message 41 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

As shown in the earlier comments in this thread, I have been having the problem for many months. I have experienced little or no change.  My dire warnings are still popping up red for almost everything I download at Deviant Art, including JPGs, PNGs, PSDs, and zip files, sometimes hundreds per day and the site is safe. I don't think McAfee is interested in solving the issue. I feel like our pleas are just being ignored. *shrug*

Message was edited by: PattyP on 12/2/10 6:46:05 PM CST
Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 42 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

I just tried to replicate your problem by downloading the file that gave you an Amber warning. First I checked the SiteAdvisor page for allsubs.org, and it reported a green site with 5 green downloads. No reported problems anywhere on the site. No user reviews, unfortunately, for a second opinion.

I used IE8 for the download. My Security Center build is 10.5.216, SiteAdvisor build is 3.2.0.152

The file downloaded without any problems and I saved it. SmartFilter checked it on the way down and gave it the all-clear.

Once saved to disk, I checked it with McAfee, Malwarebytes and SpyBot. All of them reported the download to be malware-free. So that file at least is confirmed to have been reported erroneously when you tried to download it. The question is, why?

I have downloaded several files recently and have had no warnings from SiteAdvisor. This must be occurring because of something on your system or your connection to the Internet. What it might be though, I don't know.

Let's start with a few simple things.

What version of McAfee are you running, especially SiteAdvisor? Check with MVT that all the components are present, up to date and not corrupted.

Are you running any other real-time AV software as well as McAfee?

What browser were/are you using?

How do you connect to the Internet?

Have you got either Microsoft's or McAfee's phishing filter enabled?

SiteAdvisor is a BHO (Browser Helper Object) which is not listed separately in Add/Remove Programs. You say you've tried an Uninstall/Reinstall but the problem persists. Try disabling the BHO in IE Tools/Options the next time you receive a warning about a download, and re-download the file - but save it, don't run it. If using IE, watch the download information box to see what SmartScreen Filter has to say about it. Once saved, check the file with a right-click scan option. If you get a clean result for a file that SA has warned you about, go to this SiteAdvisor page and submit the download URL for testing.

If there is no obvious mechanism for triggering these warnings by SA, we'll have to consider the possibility that somehow the download file size is being misreported and SA is comparing its (wrong) size information with the site's information about the file size.

Or, just possibly, something is trying to attach an extra packet onto whatever file you want to download - I don't know whether any malware could do that to a download from a clean and legit site.

Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 43 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

PattyP, apologies for overlooking your post. I went back to your post of about July 19th and tried downloading jpg files, rar's, all the items you linked to in your post. I encountered no problems at all, no messages, no warnings. (But I did like the 'Whale in Love and me'  🙂  Where can I get one?)

It's got to be something in your setup that's doing this. The messages only kick in once the download process is under way, so you're probably going to have to examine the firewall settings very carefully before you look outside the McAfee zone for answers.

I have to admit I'm a bit short on solutions because this hasn't happened to me yet. But it's a continuing problem for you and others, so I'll do what I can.

hippiemaster
Former Member
Message 44 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

Hello Hayton and thank you for your quick respond. I think we are getting somewhere.

So, I use the stand alone siteadvisor version 3.3.160.

I only run avira real-time antivirus alone.

I use firefox 3.6.12 (which for some reason I have come to believe is causing the problem)

I have a wireless connection on a router that I share with 4 other people (I live in a shared house), so I have it set to public.

Smart screen filter on IE is on, but I never really use IE.

Siteadvisor's version I have is listed individually on the add/remove programs list.

mcafeelisted.jpg

From here I uninstalled it and then used MCPR to completely remove it before re-installing it, as I mentioned in my previous post.

Now, after I got your message I went and downloaded the same file with IE and I got NO alert message from Mcafee, without disabling anything. So, it appears as if there is an incompatibility between the new version of firefox and siteadvisor. I am almost sure that the problem started when I updated ff, but I am not 100% sure coz it's been a month now or so.

What do you recomend?

Message was edited by: hippiemaster on 12/3/10 8:29:05 AM CST
newjack
Former Member
Message 45 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

For what it`s worth,a few months back i was having a problem with site advisor.While trying to download a program.It could just be another problem with siteadvisor.When this happened to me, I was not able to download the item and brought the problem here.I think i was trying the download with IE at the time.Then EX-brit had tried and said he only had the problem with firefox.You may want to wait for someone that has access to siteadvisor to answer this.You can also run the file through virustotal.Which has 43 different scanners.Although it looks like hayton did a pretty thorough job.          newjack

hippiemaster
Former Member
Message 46 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

To add something funny:

I just downloaded MVT with firefox and got the following message:

mcafeealert2.jpg

I ran the tool but it seems it doesn't support the version I have. According to MVT's product list it supports only version 2.

http://mvt.mcafee.com/mvt/ProductList.asp

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 47 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

Are you downloading from http://mvt.mcafee.com/ ?

hippiemaster
Former Member
Message 48 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

From here: http://mvt.mcafee.com/mvt/en-us/default.html?en-us

I follow the instructions as below:

mvt.jpg

In the alert message in my previous post you can see the link.

Message was edited by: hippiemaster on 12/3/10 9:44:54 AM CST
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 49 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

Very bizarre....Hayton...???

Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 50 of 70

Re: SiteAdvisor marking downloads as dangerous

I'll have to check with someone about this, but it looks as if there is a problem with SiteAdvisor 3.3 not working correctly with Firefox. There is a different problem with SiteAdvisor/Firefox in this thread where Peacekeeper & I were speculating that 3.3 might be a beta release. It looks as if that is not the case, but it does look as if the problems are only/mainly with the 3.3 release. Interesting that when I query whether I've got the latest version FF says I have.

I'll try to get hold of someone from McAfee to investigate and see whether a beta version has been released early by mistake. Surely not, but we need to rule out that possibility. If 3.3 is the new release the problem will have to be reported to McAfee as one to be investigated and fixed asap.

[Edit] - One possible difference that I've just remembered is that between the standard SA that comes with the full McAfee package and the SiteAdvisor Plus paid-for upgrade (see screenshots). I don't get to use the fancy extras that only get enabled in SA Plus, but if anyone has access to that slider I would suggest setting it to minimal for sites that you trust, and putting all your trusted sites into the do-not-check-these-sites-list. At least until the strange behaviour is all sorted out.

Message was edited by: Hayton on 03/12/10 17:39:00 GMT
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