Patchou: You are an <insert unflattering description here> - Part 3

Summary:  The Sponsor Program deliberately bypasses XPSP2's pop-up blocker; it removes protective entries from HOSTS files, it *may* edit your firewall settings to grant itself unfettered access to and from the net (blocked on my system by Group Policy).  Older, vulnerable operating systems, or systems running with lowered security settings, will be infected with additional malware products automatically.  You won't just get the "Sponsor", you'll get the Sponsor and lots of other crap.  Read on.

Did you know that Messenger Plus! gathers "statistics" and that the option to send statistics is enabled by default, and no notice is given?

 

Ok, back to the "Sponsor".  It just keeps on trying to infect your PC - oh yeah, this is REAL appropriate for a pre-teen market !!!NOT!!!

 

Then there are the mysterious favorites.... they're in Internet Explorer.. but if you right click, nothing happens, and if you go to Windows Explorer, nothing is there either - the favorites CANNOT be removed without uninstalling the Sponsor.

 

Want more inappropriate to minors content? How about this?

 

My tests of the sponsor program, and the screenshots, were captured over the space of  less than an hour.  Guess what Patchou.  You're the lowest of the low. Your "Sponsor" pushes Betrayware / false antispyware.  One of them is potentially a known malware that uses a rootkit to try to avoid removal.  Several third party activex controls tried to install on my PCs over a period of less than an hour (pity those who are not using XP... older operating systems will NOT be prompted to allow installation - it will just happen).  Your Sponsor pushes adult content, but I am yet to see *anybody* in your forums, when confronted by a minor who says he will or has installed the sponsor to "support" Patchou, told that he is not allowed to install because he is under 18.  NOT ONCE!!

I don't care that the forced change of home page is gone; I don't care that the Search toolbar is gone. Patchou's Sponsor Program is pushing malware and betrayware and adult content inappropriate to an underage audience.  That sucks.

Further information about installation (operating system, settings etc) in the next blog entry.

Published Fri, Apr 7 2006 16:06 by sandi
Filed under: ,

Comments

# re: Patchou: You are an &amp;lt;insert unflattering description here&amp;gt; - Part 3

Friday, April 07, 2006 6:18 PM by TeMerc
Sandi, what sort of security did you have installed on this machine?

I installed the sponsor program and allowed everything to go, and I did not receive any popups of any type at time in the course of 30-40 minutes. The only things I had running was my av and firewall, which did not give me any alerts.

I plan on doing more testing over the weekend.

# re: Patchou: You are an &amp;lt;insert unflattering description here&amp;gt; - Part 3

Friday, April 07, 2006 7:37 PM by sandi
My test machine is a standard Windows XP SP2 installation with pop-up blocker enabled and IE6 - no antispyware or anti-adware products which are known to damage this very well known, and unpopular, malware product making it extremely difficult to remove.

# re: Patchou: You are an &amp;lt;insert unflattering description here&amp;gt; - Part 3

Sunday, April 09, 2006 2:55 AM by John Anderton
Well those statistics are something totally unrelated .... they arent in anyway hindering your privacy and they GO TO PATCHOU and not to the sponsor or anyone else.

YOUR PRIVACY IS TAKEN CARE OF AT ALL TIMES

# re: Patchou: You are an &amp;lt;insert unflattering description here&amp;gt; - Part 3

Sunday, April 09, 2006 5:50 AM by Aw Diddums
I think it is clear that the sponsor package is what is being selected to install. You purposely set your screenshots up to show that by default the "I accept install the sponsor" radio button is checked - whereas by default it actually isn't!

Nice try, but please try to find something else better to complain about.

# re: Patchou: You are an &amp;lt;insert unflattering description here&amp;gt; - Part 3

Sunday, April 09, 2006 5:58 AM by sandi
Of *course* I am going to show the sponsor install option as checked. I was testing the sponsor. If you know of a way to install the sponsor without checking the box, please share.

Do the world a favour and TRY to get past the "its optional" excuse. It doesn't work and is no more than a cop-out.

# re: Patchou: You are an &amp;lt;insert unflattering description here&amp;gt; - Part 3

Sunday, April 09, 2006 3:00 PM by Chris
Hmm, that's odd. I installed it without the sponsor, and with, to make sure it worked. My Anti-spyware picked up the sponsor program itself when I installed it with it, and it didn't when I told it not to... It seemed to be honest, although, there's never a way to be 100% sure.