Chrome blocking software / false positive

[Paulo Silva]

Hi,

The last 48 hours had no fun at all for me.

I'm a software developer and since 2007 i have shareware / demo versions of my softwares for Windows available on www.housoft.org

Never had problems before, but since last saturday Chrome started to flag our site as 'malicious'. I went to Webmaster Tools and saw that all ZIP packages of our softwares were flagged as 'malware'.

We made no changes on the packages, so i just requested a review explaining the files have no malware and Webmaster Tools unblocked the site. 

BUT when users tried to download any zip file from the site, Chrome blocks it with the 'malicious' message.

After a lot of struggle and research, i found out that somehow the files started to be flagged as malware by some anti-virus, specially AVG. After hours and hours of tests, i found out the problem was a auto-update feature that used a Windows API to download the newer version.

I recompiled all instalation packages of our softwares, checked on Virustotal and now all are on ZERO detection ratio, as the link below shows :

https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/0571411e63185b754109bf6cf85b6b4da8ecdba039db0342eaa13989ed7f9c92/analysis/

The original download link for this file is http://www.housoft.org/apps/face/housface.zip

But even all files marked as clean, even with no warning on Webmaster Tools, Chrome keeps blocking ANY file downloaded from our site as 'malicious'.

Since saturday our sales dropped to near zero : nobody wants to download a file that the most browser used in the world says is 'malicious'. 

We aren't talking about a newbie software developer but one that exists since 2007 and have thousands of users. It's very frustrating knowing how we are in Google's hands : this kind of mistake can easily ruin a company.

So my life in the last 2 days is all about struggle with this issue and try to get a solution. It's very hard because Google does not have an efficient way of contact. All provided is FAQs and 'knowledge' bases that won't help who is already blocked without notice. If i have no Webmaster Tools warning and no detection in any anti-virus software, i don't know what more could lead to such a dramatic blocking by Chrome.

After trying to get solutions from the Webmaster Tools forum, a guy told me would be easier to get some information on this forum.

So if you can get me any useful information about this issue i'll really appreciate.

Thanks in advance.

[SeekingTheTruth]

Hello Paulo, 

We have exactly the same problem with our software. Let me help you so that you avoid dead ends and incorrect assumptions: 

1. Other antivirus software has nothing to do with it. Your software may or may not be detected as malware by other a/v programs - that doesn't mean anything to Chrome. 

2. Website has nothing to do with the file. Your site may be clean, but your file may still be blocked by Chrome. 

3. No one at Google can help you with that. There is no false positive form specifically for this issue, and Google's phone numbers are never answered except if you call Adwords. But Adwords specialists won't be able to help you with that. 

4. This forum won't help you either. These false positives have been a problem for almost 3 years or maybe even more, and a there is a lot of complaints. But neither Google nor Chrome developers care. 

A few links: 

http://portforward.com/virus_help/chrome.htm

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chrome/5sK5h04d0ik/0eL3pLco8-wJ

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/r-9JQIboUmc/discussion

http://blog.chromium.org/2012/01/all-about-safe-browsing.html

I'm afraid that this is the beginning of the end of Chrome. It was a great browser until they decided to make it "anti-malware". When there is a critical mass of users who are sick and tired of all this reckless "blocking" they will simply abandon Chrome in favor of Firefox or IE/Edge that are less intrusive. 

[Paulo Silva]

Hello,

Thank you for the information, although frustrating, is very helpful.

As far as i understood, there is nothing i can do, so now Chrome will block my software forever ?

In your case, what did you do ?

[Marat]

When I was browsing the complaints where people also left their website addresses and program download links, I checked if their products were still blocked by Chrome. They weren't. 

So I assume that after a while Chrome will stop detecting the software as harmful unless something bad happens that re-assures Chrome that it might be harmful. 

In your case, what did you do ?

It's easier to tell what we didn't do :) We didn't consider United Nations and European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg although with many Google services it seems like the only viable option :)   

But seriously, perhaps there is a solution that we still don't know about. I requested a few of above-mentioned vendors - I wanted to know how they fixed the problem - but didn't receive a reply yet. 

[Paulo Silva]

Thank you for the information.

So far, we are blocked for 4 days.  Will keep researching and looking for alternatives.

VERY FRUSTRATING : /

[Marat]

We've been blocked well for a month. At first, we thought that our site was hacked or something, i.e. we assumed that the issue originated on the site. We had a security warning in Webmaster Tools that "malware is detected on the site". 

However, later we figured out that the site was actually clean. Once we stopped hosting our software on the site and moved it to Google Drive instead, the site got clean - no more messages in Webmaster Tools. So far we restrain from moving the files back to the site because it may start all over again. 

[Paulo Silva]

After 5 days Chrome has finally unblocked our downloads. We really don't know what lead to the unblock, but anyway thank you very much for all information provided.

Hope things get back to normal now.

[Marat]

Paulo, 

I know that what I'm saying is not very pleasant for developer's hears who put so much effort into Chrome's development. I respect their work and enthusiasm. But this "malware protection" is killing Chrome. 

How can a browser be trusted if it assumes an antivirus software role and yet it cannot perform it well? Just like it can block a legitimate program it can unblock/allow malware. Therefore, anyone who relies on Google Chrome's "antimalware protection" and turns off their antivirus software web module is exposed to a high risk of getting their PC infected. The antimalware protection in Chrome is so half-baked and faulty that I don't even understand how could it make it out of their lab. 

[Paulo Silva]

I agree with you.

Unfortunately we small developers are the weaker side , so if Chrome wrongly blocks our software our sells drops to near zero as nowadays this is the most popular browser.

Even thinking they won't , iI just hope people at Google take more care in calling honest software as 'malware'...

[Lindsey Lewis]

I think Google needs to remove these stupid "safety" features and let users make the decisions. I'm sick of them blocking stuff. I tried to download a video enhancement tool today that I know is safe, and I can't because Google is blocking it. I would say they have no right whatsoever to be limit where we can go, but since CISA passed and net neutrality was killed, corporations can do anything they want on the internet without consequences. The corporations control everything. It sucks.

[lilbern...@gmail.com]

My Chrome has made the decision that Google Drive, particularly Google Documents is pure evil and that it should not open it. I don't blame it sometimes, but this particular document is extremely important and something I cannot lose. I got past the block by doing one of those "are you a robot" tests. Now when my document is open it just says it's trying to connect and I cannot edit anything. I'm an absolute moron with technology, so I don't know what to do.

[PhistucK]

Sounds like a Google Drive/Google Docs issue rather than a Chrome issue. Please, send feedback to those instead.

☆PhistucK

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