Is this what it looks like?

From: Lance Delacroix (lance_delacroix@fastmail.fm)
Date: 12/23/01 

From: Lance Delacroix <lance_delacroix@fastmail.fm>
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 16:11:10 +0200

I hope somebody out there who knows more than I do can help me
evaluate this situation.

I recently did a software search for educational games and such for my
three-year-old child. One of the sites that turned up was
www.wyvern.com, which has a lot of free screen-savers and other stuff,
and some toys at http://www.wyvern.com/freegames.htm#123LEARN.

All of their stuff is free, ostensibly subsidized by Gator, a company
that provides a free piece of software along with every Wyvern
download: "As part of the install, we install a small program that
allows Gator to introduce their software to our users." (from
http://www.wyvern.com/freegames.htm#FreeGames)

Reading on, Wyvern says that Gator's software "is a cool piece of
software that helps you remember passwords, and fill out forms online.
It is free to use, has no negative side effects, and only does what
you tell it. " (also from the preceding URL).

Now, I remembered the name Gator from a post in
comp.security.firewalls (from mtubi@python.net Wed Dec 19 06:29:22
2001) in which Gator was listed as one of a number of "known parasite
services". Very interesting.

Somewhere in the mess of blurbs I found something (I can't find it
again now) that said that Gator's program, called "Trickle", would be
downloaded unobtrusively, a tiny bit at a time, so as to avoid
intefering with my surfing pleasure.

I downloaded the kiddy software and installed it. Then I checked the
new directory and found a file called called "Trickle_blahblahblah".
Soon afterwards, I got an alert from my Tiny Personal Firewall telling
me that Trickle was trying to connect outward. "No need for that," I
thought, and I denied it and then deleted it from the directory where
it had lodged. I installed a second kiddy game and it put a second
copy of Trickle onto my computer, which I also deleted.

Now I'm no genius, but it looks to me like this "cool" software was
something whose job it was to send information about my computer to
Gator. Whaddaya think? Am I right? You can check it out for
yourself through the above URLs. If I'm correct about this, the full
text on http://www.wyvern.com/freegames.htm#FreeGames will make some
pretty hilarious reading.

Thanks.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: gator installation
    ... Download, install, update and run all of the following. ... Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware ... > targeted as "criticle" and in need of removing, had the word gator in it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Is this what it looks like?
    ... >I recently did a software search for educational games and such for my ... >All of their stuff is free, ostensibly subsidized by Gator, a company ... >download: "As part of the install, we install a small program that ...
    (comp.security.firewalls)
  • Is this what it looks like?
    ... I recently did a software search for educational games and such for my ... All of their stuff is free, ostensibly subsidized by Gator, a company ... download: "As part of the install, we install a small program that ...
    (comp.security.misc)
  • Re: Is this what it looks like?
    ... Gator is one of the more insidious pieces of spyware on the ... Does it install components (which are not a part of the program ... >download: "As part of the install, we install a small program that ...
    (comp.security.misc)
  • Re: Gator VS.?
    ... Get rid of Gator NOW! ... (e.g., "c:\New Folder") ... Download Sysclean.com and place it in that directory. ... Re-enable System Restore and re-apply any System Restore preferences, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)