Windows Defender blocking BitTorrent/uTorrent

[kagarium]

So in the past day Windows Defender has been picking up BitTorrent as a virus on my laptop. Never had an issue before, I haven't even used BitTorrent recently, so I have no idea why its complaining about it.

 

I know i can just add it to my exceptions but any clue on why defender is picking it up in the first place?

 

And no I'm not using it for illegal cracked copies of games or anything.

 

[GoodBytes]

BitTorrent/uTorrent (same software, 2 different names), have been found to do things beside being a torrenting software.

You can add an exception, but I would look for another program for your linux distro downloads needs

[kagarium]

Just now, GoodBytes said:

I would look for another program for your linux distro downloads needs

Any suggestions?

[m0k]

24 minutes ago, kagarium said:

Any suggestions?

I use MediaGet, no issues

[MimigaKing]

49 minutes ago, kagarium said:

Any suggestions?

Tixati

[dalekphalm]

16 hours ago, kagarium said:

Any suggestions?

Deluge or Transmission are both open source and free. I use Deluge on my laptop when needed, and I have a Transmission Server on my FreeNAS server.

 

Also, based on your screenshot, that DOES look like a virus. Otherwise why would uTorrent have an EXE in the appdata folder? That doesn't make sense. The EXE should be inside the Program Files folder.

[dalekphalm]

6 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

A bunch of newer applications are installed in AppData instead of Program Files, for whatever reason. It can be legit, but have been marked by Defender as malware because of the mining story.

How odd - why would they get installed into AppData? Seems like bad programming to me. What benefit would there be in installing the executable there?

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

No idea, but GitHub Desktop is installed there, Resilio Sync, GitKraken, the Windows Store version of Arduino and Spotify are there too.

Doing some research, it appears like these applications are simply taking a "shortcut" in terms of coding.

 

The proper standard is to still install into Program Files. AppData is... well, for Application Data. So user settings, configs, etc. That way each user can have their own settings.

 

There are some reasons to install directly to that folder, but they're pretty minimal, and mostly surround Active Directory Roaming Profiles.

[bcguru9384]

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 9:14 PM, kagarium said:

So in the past day Windows Defender has been picking up BitTorrent as a virus on my laptop. Never had an issue before, I haven't even used BitTorrent recently, so I have no idea why its complaining about it.

 

I know i can just add it to my exceptions but any clue on why defender is picking it up in the first place?

 

And no I'm not using it for illegal cracked copies of games or anything.

 

PUP PUA

pontentialy unwanted program/app

add exemption or change antivirus

 

[WkdPaul]

* thread cleaned *

 

If you're not interested in helping, don't reply and move on. If you see replies that are pointless or not contributing, don't reply, don't engage, and report.

_____________________________

 

 

@kagarium as pointed out by @bcguru9384, it's flagged as a Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA), simply add an exception. Windows Defender updates it's detection databases just like any anti-virus and anti-malware programs so it probably added uTorrent sometime ago and caught it in one of it's scans.

 

I've mined crypto in the past and I have a folder exclusion just for those since Windows Defender also flags those as PUA.

Edited November 11, 2020 by wkdpaul