[Flac] Security exploit downloaded with FLAC?

Ralph Giles
Sat, 11 Dec 2004 20:47:37 -0000

On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 07:37:40PM -0500, Helen Glazer wrote:

> As is my routine every couple of weeks, I ran Pest Patrol anti-spyware
> software, and was disturbed to find it came back saying that the file
> FLAC/COPYING.FDL was a security exploit known as "Virus Tutorial"
or
> VTool/jul2.  This has left me wondering if FLAC is to be trusted.

Well, since the file in question is just a text file, my guess is that
this is a false positive, where it just happens to contain something
similar to a known malware program.

You don't say which FLAC package you downloaded, but there is a note on
http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html about some virus scanners
having this problem with the FLAC 1.1.1 for Windows installer.

> Can someone here explain what's going on?  I do no e-mailing on that
> particular PC, and have it set to block all pop-ups.

Hope that reassures you; you can also compare the file with the original
version published by the Free Software Foundation at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt or look up other copies on the net.

 -r