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Poster: Big Blue Gnu Date: May 27, 2023 9:08am
Forum: software Subject: Malware false positives

Hello, I would like to take the time to appreciate the Archive's mission to preserve online media and the platform it has given me to provide my own commentary to what I preserve as I participate. With that out of the way, earlier today, I uploaded a demo for a late 1990s game called DX-Ball 2 at this link, but it was removed due to the following message I received in my inbox:



Dear FreeMediaKids!,

Thank you for your interest in adding files to the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, one or more of the files you uploaded into item dx-ball-2 appear to be malware, and access to the item on archive.org has been blocked. You can get more details about the malware file(s) here:

DX-Ball 2 Demo Install.exe https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7e82439598619f6da940e7d4adcc77cb412b98945635f54eb50d8504af365b42/detection/f-7e82439598619f6da940e7d4adcc77cb412b98945635f54eb50d8504af365b42-1685197871
DX-Ball 2.zip https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/24e604ff0dac51c50da06431cc149e7193914b4082dba5ff15e6a5b37e8a8825/detection/f-24e604ff0dac51c50da06431cc149e7193914b4082dba5ff15e6a5b37e8a8825-1685197878

If you have questions or concerns, you may contact us at info@archive.org.



Given my record of downloading media from official sources (which is true in this case), it is hard to believe how a company like Longbow Games could so recklessly put out malware to the public. Frankly, it is not the first time it has happened to me. The first time was when I uploaded screensavers for Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and they all were removed for the same reason. The screensavers, by the way, come straight from the LucasArts website, and it is even harder to conceive such a respectable company like that fail to security-proof its software. I fully get that the Archive has a stringent policy against users uploading trojan horses, but I am under the impression that antivirus detections of dangerous code in products from trusted companies are false positives. It is unproductive, and it sort of discourages me from uploading any more software, even those downloaded from websites like LucasArts. Can something be done to improve the antivirus checks, or is the only way of restoring uploads to report false positives?