Anyone know if FrostWire is a 'safe' app?

[Ken90630]

A friend of mine's son has asked me to install FrostWire on the new PC they're going to get in the next day or two. It's a P2P file sharing app similar to LimeWire.

I know file sharing sites (e.g., Kazaa) are known for being security risks, but FrostWire seems to be a 'mainstream' entity so I'm wondering how safe it is. Any of you guys/gals use it or have experience with it, and if so, is it crawling with malware hosting/distribution or is it reasonably safe (as safe as such a thing can be)?

 

[VirtualLarry]

P2P networks are filled with malware. Just the nature of the beast. Get a good AV and AS, and scan everything you download. Better yet, send it to virustotal or some online scanner site too. But then you will still be at risk for zero-day trojans.

Best to avoid P2P altogether, if you care about the security of your computer. Or have a seperate computer for P2P, and one for doing your other normal online stuff, like online banking, etc.

 

[lxskllr]

The app itself is safe. The crap you can get with it OTOH.... Seems like every heavily infested computer I deal with has Limewire installed, and Frostwire is basically the same thing.

 

[Ken90630]

That's kind of what I was afraid of.

BTW, I'm curious: Just why is P2P file sharing such a malware-laden process? What are the kids sending each other that's so often infected? I'm under the impression that they're sending music files (mp3s or whatever) and cell phone pics for the most part (and pron too, I assume). Other than the pron, which has obvious malware problems, what else are they sending each other? Or is it not so much a matter of the content, but more that the PCs themselves -- that they use to send stuff to each other -- are infected and thus the infections spread when they send something to another peer?

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's kind of what I was afraid of.

BTW, I'm curious: Just why is P2P file sharing such a malware-laden process? What are the kids sending each other that's so often infected? I'm under the impression that they're sending music files (mp3s or whatever) and cell phone pics for the most part (and pron too, I assume). Other than the pron, which has obvious malware problems, what else are they sending each other? Or is it not so much a matter of the content, but more that the PCs themselves -- that they use to send stuff to each other -- are infected and thus the infections spread when they send something to another peer?

It's because P2P networks make it so much easier for evildoers to spread malware. It's big business these days. Botnets, bank-account hijacking, etc.

Windows doesn't help, because by default it hides file extensions. So you might think that you were getting a jpg, but it's really a .jpg.exe.

 

[Dankk]

Windows doesn't help, because by default it hides file extensions. So you might think that you were getting a jpg, but it's really a .jpg.exe.

I always have Windows display file extensions. I can't stand looking in my file browser and not seeing extensions. That said, as long as you're not using P2P to download executable files (.exe, .scr, .bat) then you'll usually be fine.

Honestly though... I think Limewire/Frostwire are really things of the past. Last time I used Limewire was 7 years ago. I don't know anyone who still does.

 

[Leros]

Windows doesn't help, because by default it hides file extensions. So you might think that you were getting a jpg, but it's really a .jpg.exe.

Yeah, thats a big problem. I was on somebody else's computer and they were running Limewire. As an example, I saw a download for Lady Gaga's latest album, but it was really a 13k exe file. Most people have no clue about file sizes and extensions.