Avast says CCleaner was targeted by hackers... again
Security firm Avast has revealed that it detected and intercepted suspicious activity on its network. The malicious attack is believed to have been instigated by hackers seeking to target the CCleaner software.
This is not the first time Avast and CCleaner have been targeted, and the company has revealed that an attacker had been trying to gain access to its network through its VPN as long ago as mid-May. The attacks -- dubbed "Abiss" -- continued until the beginning of this month.
Microsoft bans CCleaner from its support forums
Microsoft has blacklisted the CCleaner utility and links to the software can no longer be posted in its support forums.
An email sent out to community moderators reveals a total of 11 domains which Microsoft censors with its blacklist filter. If an ordinary user attempts to post a link to a banned site, that post will be removed.
Avast bundles buggy preview web browser with CCleaner, leading to predictable nightmarish results
Ever since Avast took over Piriform in 2017, fans of the popular system cleaning tool CCleaner have had to put up with problem after problem, beginning -- yes beginning! -- with malware, bundled software, and pop-up ads. As if that wasn’t bad enough, CCleaner began snooping on users and Avast, for good measure, also made it impossible to quit the software.
Things have quietened down recently, but with the latest version of CCleaner it seems as if Avast is up to its old tricks again, this time bundling an unwanted, buggy web browser and changing file extensions.
CCleaner 5.55 adds a software updater (but only in Professional)
Install software on your computer and you’ll be forgiven for not having the spare time to search for updates. Most applications do not have a software update facility, so unless you go checking, you’ll often never know it’s been updated.
With this in mind, and software developers running out of key ideas to add to future revisions to encourage paid upgrades, we’re seeing 'Software Updater' tools being released to the market or added to system maintenance applications. IObit recently released a standalone Software Updater tool this year which we wrote about this month.
CCleaner updating itself against users’ wishes [Updated]
It’s fair to say CCleaner has lost a lot of fans since Avast took over Piriform last year. We’ve seen problems with malware, bundled software, and pop-up ads, and then most recently Avast made a number of unwelcome privacy changes to the popular system cleaner, and removed the ability to quit the software.
It eventually pulled the most recent problematic update, and released a replacement, CCleaner 5.46, without the privacy issues, but it turns out that this release has problems of its own.
CCleaner update offers improved privacy controls, renames elements to stop users freaking out, adds bundleware
It’s fair to say, CCleaner has experienced a lot of problems since Avast acquired it last year. We’ve seen issues with malware, bundled software, and popup ads, and most recently the company was embroiled in a privacy controversy, which led to it pulling the last update.
Today, Avast rolls out a new update to CCleaner which adds a number of privacy settings, and sees certain monitoring features being renamed. Avast also takes the opportunity to once again try to install its antivirus software on your PC. Yes, seriously.
Avast pulls the latest version of CCleaner following privacy controversy
Piriform rolled out updates for CCleaner on a monthly basis, and this is something that has continued since Avast took over. The latest update, CCleaner 5.45, wasn’t at all well received due to a number of changes affecting privacy, and the company’s response to the matter proved to be unsatisfactory -- to say the least.
Now it seems that Avast has seen the light, and pulled the latest update. The current version available is 5.44. On its forums the company had this to say:
Avast responds to CCleaner controversy
Yesterday I wrote about why people might want to skip the latest version of popular system cleaning tool CCleaner. This isn’t the first time that I, and other long-time users, have expressed dissatisfaction in how the program is evolving under Avast.
Following yesterday’s piece, the Avast-owned Piriform -- CCleaner’s maker -- contacted me to clarify the situation. This is what the company had to say.
Warning: DO NOT install the latest version of CCleaner [Updated]
A month ago, I wrote about how I felt Avast was ruining CCleaner, the excellent system cleaning software it took over when it acquired Piriform last year.
In Avast's short tenure, we've already seen CCleaner suffer from malware, bundled software, and pop-up ads. In my article headline I asked "what’s next?" Well, with a new version of CCleaner available to download, we now have the answer. Inevitably, it's not good.
Avast is ruining CCleaner -- malware, bundled software, popup ads... what's next?
Security software firm Avast acquired Piriform -- the maker of several popular system utilities, including CCleaner -- last year. Things didn’t go too well from the off however, as shortly afterwards, it was revealed that CCleaner had been hacked and a dangerously modified version had been available to download for a number of weeks.
Avast was quick to point out Piriform’s IT systems were breached before it acquired the company, but it was still in charge when the infected build was released. That sort of thing is very unfortunate -- and even more embarrassing given the business Avast is in -- but it could be forgiven. Unfortunately, since then Avast seems to be working hard to alienate CCleaner’s devoted userbase.
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