Why does this website think Nelly Cootalot.exe is 'Evil'?

[Ali]

I have to admit that I was self-indulgently searching for 'Nelly Cootalot' to see if I could find some feedback for the game, when I found this website which seems to think Nelly Cootalot could be spyware.



It says the file path and stucture are suspicious! Axes of Evil? Is Nelly working with Osama Bin Laden?

It says that :

NELLY COOTALOT.EXE is a file recently detected by the Prevx database. This file is yet to be determined globally as Good or Bad, therefore it is currently classified as Unknown. However if it is malware then it may well be caught by the behaviour protection in Prevx

If this file breaks one of the 4 Prevx "Axes of Evil", it will be immediately determined as a Bad. The only way to safeguard against this possible threat is by installing Prevx which has the ability to protect you from all bad files from the instant they are determined.

So it's not evil just yet, but they're encouraging people to buy their software in case a game about spoonbeaks tries to steal their credit card number. Most depressing of all is the 'very low' propagation rate. I'm never going to get enough credit card numbers at this rate.

[auriond]

I suspect that sites like these list about every file they can get their hands on, and label them as "suspicious" at best. It's a way to try and get people to buy their own highly dubious software. I've never heard of PrevX.

[scotch]

It's not labelled either way, but yeah I guess the reason the reports are put up on their site is to drive traffic. The only mildly suspect thing it found is that whoever submitted the scan ran the exe right out of the archive, in a temporary directory. Seems a bit strange to flag that, but oh well, it's nothing to worry about.

[Radiant]

"YOUR PC MAY HAVE A PROBLEM!!!!!1!!!"

Therefore you must pay us money to fix it.

Old trick, don't fall for it.

[voh]

Obviously they hate Spoonbeaks.

[AGA]

My firewall has told me before that AGS games were trying to access the Internet. I suppose that could make it look like a suspicious file to people who didn't know better.

[BOYD1981]

i've had that happen before, and not just with AGS games. the firewall would report that the exe was attempting to send ICMP type 11 information or something like that.
actually, i have screenshot i took of it from when it first happened, i think i posted about it at the time but can't really remember.

[scotch]

I've had the same ICMP message from all kinds of programs. I got it from the Knytt Strories editor yesterday. I assume it's some kind of false alarm that a few different firewalls get.

[m0ds]

I'd never trust a database that's an anagram of 'perv' anyway... :p

Still, when I clicked Nelly Cootalot EXE I was bombarded with spyware and porn, so I don't know what the fuss is here, Ali?

[blueskirt]

Maybe Nelly has cooties.