Be cautious downloading rainmeter skins at deviantART
Malware & Stealth Keyloggers within
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by karmat | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I just wanted to post news of what's going on at deviantART the past few days to warn people of the infected skins that are getting uploaded to the Rainmeter Gallery there.
We have found 20 rainmeter skins so far (almost 4,000 downloads so far) that:
1) contain malware, trojans, worms, and stealth keyloggers
2) are complete copies of other artists skins, right down to the same preview and description
A couple of ways to recognize a potential bad skin is that the person:
- is a brand new member
- they have their comments turned off
- they have no personal info on their profile page
- they don't have anything else in their gallery or they have the two or three infected skins from this week
We've been doing numerous testing, reporting, warning, blogging, etc etc, still waiting for dA staff to show signs that they are alive and interested.
I'm pretty sure it's someone that was banned that is now trying to wreak havoc, but there's no way of proving it unless dA decides to get involved. Needless to say, our group there and at the Rainmeter Forum are pretty upset by this and we're trying to keep on top of it, but it's pretty hard to do without assistance from dA. As soon as we find/test/report/blog one infection, another one has popped up.
For people here who download (or have downloaded any in the last week) rainmeter skins from dA, please read the full post at our Rainmeter Group there first, we are keeping it updated with news of infected skins as we find them along with the virus reports http://rainmeter.deviantart.com/blog/39762918/
Most important, if you download there, don't if it is a .exe file. It should either be .rmskin or a zip file with .ini and .png files.
As you know, here at WC, your rainmeter downloads are completely safe because they actually moderate here, novel concept!
If you have any questions or news, you can contact me here, private pm or at deviantART http://karmat111.deviantart.com/.
Keep it safe!
Karen
Update - Here is a screenshot of the Rainmeter Gallery with the infected skins circled in red - stay away from them.
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Reply #21 Thursday, April 14, 2011 1:48 AM
Apparently their stance is that it is the users/downloaders responsibility to scan files downloaded from their site for malware. I say that is BS. Yes, all downloaded files should be checked but for them to take no responsibility for hosting the files on their site is just not the popular avenue. Folks should be able to trust that the files on the site are safe.