uTorrent flagged as harmful and malicious by top AV firms while Google Safe Browsing blocks its website.
The fight between torrents and tech companies is getting uglier even as we speak. Several top Anti-virus makers have begun blocking uTorrent after identifying the software as malicious or ‘potentially dangerous’.
To add to uTorrent’s woes, Google Chrome is currently blocking several pages on uTorrent’s official website like utclient.utorrrent.com. The same is being flagged under the Google’s Safe Browsing norms based reports the popular file-sharing application is linked to riskware and trojans.
Both the above actions will be a big blow to uTorrent, which apart from being the best bittorrent client around, is downloaded in millions every month. The client is also the main source of revenue for the San Francisco based company BitTorrent Inc. The uTorrent client dashboard shows ads and comes with bundled software which generates huge revenues for the parent company.
uTorrent is being flagged by big security software vendors like ESET and Symantec and many others. The scanning result below from VirusTotal shows that at least six anti-virus applications are flagging uTorrent as malicious or potentially dangerous.
The anti-virus engines associate the uTorrent.exe file with Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT,  while some of them are flagging the highly controversial OpenCandy bundling software used by Bittorrent.
uTorrent has been flagged earlier also but only by some solitary anti virus software but this is the first time that almost all top AV are flagging it.
 Google Safe Browsing hitting torrent websites hard
Google had promised that it would be harsh on websites that contain unwanted software/malware/ malicious software from this month onwards. Earlier Kickass Torrents was its first victim and now uTorrent is also being blocked by Google in several ways.
When users attempt to download the latest stable release of the torrent client, Chrome flags the software as malicious and pops up a warning even as it blocks the software download. Though some users have reported that they can download the client without facing any issues.
Google is also actively blocking several pages that link to uTorrent and other BitTorrent Inc. software. Google lists following issues with uTorrent website as per its Safe Browsing standards :
Bittorrent is yet to come out with a official comment on the above issue.
This article makes me wonder about the writer’s motives and “bona fide”. Google and the Antivirus companies are 100% right about this. uTorrent tries to trick you into installing harmful malware. DON’T USE IT.
Mr Tal, writers motives ??? This is a report and we have published it. Did we say that you ignore the report and use it? Neither did we say dont ignore the report. We publish things as they are, you as a reader have to form a informed decision in the matter.
Regards
Vijay
Yes, writer’s motives. Quoting you:
“The fight between torrents and tech companies is getting uglier even as we speak. Several top Anti-virus makers have begun blocking uTorrent after identifying the software as malicious or ‘potentially dangerous’.”
“To add to uTorrent’s woes, Google Chrome is currently blocking several pages on uTorrent’s official website like utclient.utorrrent.com.”
“Both the above actions will be a big blow to uTorrent, which apart from being the best bittorrent client around, is downloaded in millions every month.”
You make is sound like uTorrent are an innocent victim and Google and the AV companies are fighting uTorrent is because it’s a TORRENT program and not because it tries to trick you into installing unwanted crap (as it does).
Why do you not mention the fact that uTorrent is loaded with malware?
What’s your ulterior motive?
Tal,
I never have for a moment written that uTorrent is a innocent victim. It is a known fact that it has bundled spyware/adware and brings in loads of malware. Similarly, the other known fact remains that is the most downloaded client in the world and seemingly better than other crap clients.
Regards
I’ve never had a problem with uTorrent. sure they use a “software bundle installer” program… but you don’t have to install those extra programs. you just say “no” If Google is going to war over this then they need to declare war on the SourceForge downloader too, I cant tell you how many times that piece of shit tried downloading malware onto my systems. so other than AV companies claiming that the software is malware… has anyone actually been infected with an installation of Utorrent? Just wait for it, utorrent will end up suing google over this because of lost revenues or users… just wait.
Any software that comes with an installer that installs stuff you didn’t want by pressing “next” without actively selecting an option should be considered as malware. Do you seriously think it’s not intentional? They make loads of money by tricking unsuspecting users. Google are 100% right. They should have done it before.