Spyware Cookies!!!!!!!!!

[Brian Ellis]

I've been plagued by worm-like cookies, apparently emanating from MURC.

I cleared them using Spyware Detector (SD). I then systematically visited each of my commonly-visited sites in turn and ran an SD scan after each one. After visiting MURC, I found the number of cookies had increased from 0 to 52, all using a single spyware proggy. Granted, these are of little importance, but the problem is there and I have to spend time eliminating them after each visit.

Can something be done to eliminate these, please?

[az]

What are "worm-like cookies"? Internet worms are programs that actively spread themselves using security holes. Cookies are simple text files sent from a web server and accepted or rejected by your browser that store things like login information etc. You can view and change (though not necessarily understand) them with any text editor. They do not contain any executable parts.

Why do you accuse the MURC of spreading "Spyware"? Do you know what Spyware is? Do you know what MURCs cookies do? Do you know that cookies can't "spy" because they can't do anything? Do you know that cookies can only be read by the web server that sent them to you in the first place? I remind you again that your web browser, and thus you, chose to accept them.

To be honest, I find your posting here a bit rude.

Can something be done? Sure. Tell your Browser (you are using a secure browser like Firefox or Opera, aren't you? If not, we needn't discuss this any further.) to block cookies from MURC. You will need to manually log in every time you visit, though. Don't complain that you have to manually log in to MURC every time after that, though.

[Greebe]

The cookies set by the murc are only for remembering who you are so that when you logon, which most people have set to automagic, is for your convience only. These cookies are not spyware, nor do they track your habits or anything akin to advert cookies, worms, or anything else for that matter. It is just SD overzealous labeling of what they are.

You have been had by the security industry's way of making you think you are safer than you have always been, at least as far as the MURC goes. Think for one sec BE, we don't rely on advertising to pay for the site, it's done solely through personal donations, unlike 99% of all other sites who are out there for personal gain. Not all cookies are bad, and some, like this site, have a useful honest purpose

[Sasq]

with the adsense shut down, the only cookies being sent are the ones from vb.
however if you want to check further, break it down. go to forums.murc.ws
log in.
close browser and check cookies.

if people include an image in a post that isn't uploaded to murc, but references another site, you could also be collecting cookies from there.

[Brian Ellis]

I should like to assure everyone no offence was intended and if it seemed this way, I apologise.

OK, let me try to explain more clearly with the aid of the 2 attachments. If I clear my computer of all spyware, I can do anything, except open a MURC board, and it will remain free of spyware. The moment I open a MURC board, if I run SD, I get the attached detection. Note it says at the bottom that there is only 1 spyware with 52 associated cookies.

On the cookie1 image, you can see the risk is low, but that is not material. On the cookie2 image, you can see part of the list of cookie names, all of them related to undesirable thingies. What it means is that my visit to a site covered by any of these cookies is reported to the cookie owner.

I believe this is happening only fairly recently (maybe last week or two) but the number of cookies is increasing (yesterday, it was 48, today it is 52) but I repeat it happens only when I visit MURC. If anyone has an explanation for this behaviour, I'd be grateful.

[cjolley]

That shows only cookies.
What is the spyware?

There is some rumbling on the net about "spyware detector" being a false positive rogue.


Try this.
Delete all your cookies
Surf MURC
Look at your cookies in your browser, not the spyware program.
See if they were really added at MURC
if not THEN run your spyware program and see if it detects cookies that aren't really there or adds them it's self.

[az]

I only have very few cookies from MURC (see attached screenshot of Opera's cookie manager). What I _do_ have is lots of cookies from other sites that store that I visited their sites from MURC. Why they store their referrals in cookies I don't know, but if you don't want that, disable referrer logging in your Browser.

BTW, I don't trust that software of yours. Cookies are not dangerous at all. They are certainly not worms by any stretch of the imagination, and spyware only if you define the term as broadly as to strip it of any meaning. And the slogan "OneStop security. Total piece of mind." is a) misleading in that it lulls the user into a false sense of security, and b) obviously untrue, if your distress call on this board is any indication

[The PIT]

Funny I don't get them. I suspect you've got spyware from somewhere else possibily some dodgy website you visited by mistake.

[Brian Ellis]

There is some rumbling on the net about "spyware detector" being a false positive rogue.

Do you have a link for this?

According to a couple of refs I found, it is true that SD originally had problems about overzealousness but both sites say that this is no longer the case (see www.spywarewarrior.com).

I have tried a number of other proggies. One of the recommended best is CounterSpy. It found no spyware/adware, but it searched in only 22 cookies altogether, yet I know that, apart from the 52 doubtful ones reported earlier, there were well over 100 useful cookies (plus sub-cookies) on my machine. I suspect the 22 were MSIE ones, where I have been forced to use that abortion of a browser. IOW, it ignored FF cookies altogether.

I do not believe that cookies are as harmless as many seem to think. If they were harmless why are they scanned by most of the spyware detection utilities? Some cookies can certainly send browsing data on multiple sites and this is used commercially, by companies interrogating for competitors' cookies (I know one company, now defunct in its own right, that openly admitted that it did this - I don't know whether it still does because it was bought out by a competitor). OTOH, one of its competitors, actually boasted on their website that they did not place cookies on visitors' computers for security reasons.

I admit to a certain degree of perplexity on the subject. I don't know of any software which will detect every risk.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Not getting any wierd cookies from Murc here with Firefox, just four vb ones like Sasq said.

[Jessterw]

The cookies being displayed in those screenshots are most certainly not originating from MURC. So I'd say the problem is most definitely elsewhere.

[The PIT]

Although cookies aren't generally dangerous they can ensure that you get dodgy adverts coming up. Get a decent anti spyware programs like webroot and spyware doctor and do a full scan. Then dump IE and use firefox.