so i want serum, sister site doesnt have it as it was DMCA'd. i have downloaded a torrent for it. every time i do a virus scan on any torrent it always deletes the whole file. is there any way i can check if a crack is safe? has anyone used a serum crack that is safe? I'm using Avast security, is there something better to scan cracks with? thanks in advance for the advice guys

 

Hi
I can't speak about Avast as I don't use it since years.
For me the best AV I've used without false positive is ZoneAlarm and it's free. If I receive a virus alert from ZoneAlarm, then I delete the file without even thinking about it.

 

ah o

ah ok that's cool, so you scan the files before installing? if it comes up with PUP files do you delete it still? just realised that's windows only, know of a mac version that as good? thanks for your reply

 

what you ask for is by nature not possible,
cracks are designed to circumvent/alter executables and libraries, which is the basic definition of malware/virus, so any cautious anti-virus will smack it down, and any lazy anti-virus will let it go through, not giving a fck if the crack infects your system along its patching procedures,

if you want to play with fire, you should do complete system backups, so you'll be able to perform complete bitperfect system restore (erasing entire drive and copying full system backup onto empty disk)

 

ok that's some good advice, ill make a back up this week at some point. aren't the cracks on the sister site safe though? im very new to this site and that one (don't even know how to get to the downloads on the sister site) so im still learning, thanks for your reply and your patience

 

Sister site is the safest place I know of, besides my bomb shelter.
Check your Inbox for a PM

 

The term "crack" is kind of annoying as it can refer to any way the copy protection is bypassed, but they roughly can be split to 3 categories:

Serial number generators
Key/license file generators using challenge/response
A patch and/or patched plugin file or executable

(sometimes a combination of those)

The first two are best solved by running the keygens in an isolated environment, i.e. a sandbox or a virtual machine. Good options (for Windows anyway) are Windows Sandbox (free and comes with the OS) or Sandboxie (free). Or set up a full virtual environment using VirtualBox or somesuch.

The last one needs most caution 'cause it can't be virtualized properly, you either develop a gut feeling what is good and what's not, then use VirusTotal (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload) liberally before installing anything. Or... install it on a clean VM, then observe any irregularities (like high CPU usage or weird network usage) and if everything seems kosher, go ahead.

 

most cracks are flagged by antivirus, as the company's tell the antivirus companies to flag the keygen crack etc in there antivirus.

 

Without giving away too much or maybe I am... The reason cracked software or warez is marked as general malware/ PuP (Potentially unwanted Program)/ trojan by anti-malware software is because malware often run scripts which perform background tasks and that cracked software (you want to install or you're using) does the same thing. In the background it may be stopping the legitimate software from calling home/ connecting to the internet etc. This makes the anti-virus software think that the warez could threaten the safety of your computer, as it is launching background tasks without you're (the user's) knowledge. So it thinks it may be malicious, because non-malicious software generally performs all tasks visibly so the user can see what is going on. Pretty simple stuff.

This is known as a false positive detection.

The only way to know if warez is safe is to get it from a reputable source and even then, you still can't be 100% sure...

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2020

Uninstall the anti-virus. It mostly gets in the way of doing normal stuff and causes many programs to not work properly or become unstable. Instead, use uBlock Origin in your browser. Internet surfing in browsers (infected ads, etc.) is the most common vector of malware infections. You can usually keep Windows Defender running. That should be fine.

For checking if something is safe, upload it to Virus Total. Cracks usually have a lot of positives. Look at the results, if they are mostly things like "generic", "heuristic", "cracking tool", you can usually assume the crack is safe. Pay attention to the Kaspersky result on Virus Total. Kaspersky is very good at not alerting on things like cracks that don't actually cause harm to your system. If the Kaspersky result is positive for something specific I would not run it.

 

I was coming back to tell pretty much the same. In fact, many low-level system tools would be flagged as malware if they weren't certified by MSoft.

In general you can trust sister site as well as some other sites. The more popular/used cr*ck the better, makes much likely someone reports it as a real virus.

I use Kaspersky since ages and indeed is quite accurate not raising false positives. Still, it can't help it sometimes. There are more good ones, like the one @Olymoon said. One good thing about Kaspersky is you can close it fast.
The first thing I do after downloading warez is to rar the the cr*ck with password so the AV can't delete it. Then I launch the AV and if it marks it as malware I give it some thought based on what others and I have commented here.

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2020

I don't have to specifically scan the files as ZoneAlarm is an "always on" antivirus and firewall which will automatically scan new files in my computer.

About Mac, I really have no idea, sorry.