Avast WEBforum

Other => Viruses and worms => Topic started by: Catwoman999 on December 07, 2009, 02:36:41 PM

Title: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: Catwoman999 on December 07, 2009, 02:36:41 PM

Hello again guys,

I was trying to download OpenOffice from the cnet download site and Avast! flagged a warning that this site is malicious, so I didn't download. I had always believed cnet to be very safe, and have used it in the past safely. Though I noted that "mmm.freedownloadzone.com/images" not "www.download.cnet.com" (changed www to mmm for forum safety) was what is showing in my Avast! Network shield as infected.

I have tried cnet.co.uk downloads instead of cnet.com but too scared to try download now lol. It comes up openoffice.virginmedia not openoffice.org, if I want to download Open office....Puzzled!!!

Where can I download "open office" safely? And was my earlier Avast! warning a false positive?

Many thanks in advance for any help I am given, by you knowledgeable guys!  :)

Title: Re: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: YoKenny on December 07, 2009, 03:14:47 PM

Have you tried OpenOffice.org?
http://download.openoffice.org

Title: Re: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: Catwoman999 on December 07, 2009, 03:40:58 PM

Yes, will download direct from there Kenny. Thanks.

But why did Avast! flag cnet site malicious???

Title: Re: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: YoKenny on December 07, 2009, 03:56:35 PM

I see that freedownloadzone.com is infected.

Also www.download.cnet.com does not resolve.

Get Open Office from the source!

Title: Re: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: mikaelrask on December 07, 2009, 03:57:51 PM

it should be download.com instead. and you can get open office aswell on http://filehippo.com/download_openoffice/ for some time the speed on openoffice .org and download.com is very slow.

Title: Re: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: Catwoman999 on December 07, 2009, 05:27:08 PM

Thank for your replies so far!

But it was while I was on downloads.com (cnet) that I got the malicious site warning from Avast!, with reference to vvv.freedownloadzone.com/images.... How can that be? If cnet is considered a clean site?

Title: Re: Avast! Flagged up "download.cnet.com" as malicious
Post by: sded on December 07, 2009, 05:37:33 PM

Depending on whether you include the www or not and how you spell some of the sites exactly, you may actually get a redirect to a malicious website instead of the site you are really interested in.  Malware sites try to take advantage of minor spelling and syntax errors.  One thing you can do to make things a little safer is to use a DNS like OpenDNS or GoogleDNS that tries to check for these types of malicious sites and block them.