RE: Pixie and Trojans

2006 November 29
by Ilya

It recently came to my attention that support at Nattyware flooded again with users report about some Trojans inside Pixie. Well, it is the same story as it were once because of PestPatrol made by morons. So here is what I, as the author of Pixie, would like to say:
- Pixie’s code was not changed in a single bit, or re-packed/re-published since 2004. Whatsoever recently aroused Trojan alerts on Pixie are false positives of badly written antivirus software. If your scanner reports any Trojans or spyware inside Pixie, which was taken from http://www.nattyware.com, then please contact your antivirus vendor to fix the bug. Better yet consider to change the vendor because probably the last thing you may need is to be protected by faulty protection software.

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38 Comments leave one →
2006 December 20
Imogen permalink

are you sure?
I have got a new laptop and had pixie on my old one. My old one was slow, but i was sure that pixie had nothing to do with it as it is so small.
When you wrote it did you include any viruses or trojans or anything of that sort? I don’t think you made that clear.
Many regards, thank you for your time.

2006 December 20
Ilya permalink

Why would I do such an idiotic thing?

2006 December 20
Imogen permalink

just checking.
Sorry. :(

2006 December 22
Patrick permalink

I have used pixie for years and never had a single issue with it. The program is a very well designed and much needed app. Kudos to the developer.

Meantime, it makes no sense to me that someone would suggest that a reputable developer would taint his own program.

Finally, don’t ever download any program from an untrusted site, period.

2006 December 26
Shannon permalink

I have been using pixie for 2 yrs i recently got a new computer and downloading pixie onto it and i have a virus scanner which scans everything i download or install and it never found anything wrong with the pixie download..saying that i never expected to as i have never ever not even once had any trouble with pixie. I think pixie is a great free no virus or trojan containg download that many people use.

2007 January 2
Tec permalink

The PestPatrol program probably just picks it up because of it’s size and the clipboard code. As far as I can tell, it’s a simple, clean, well made web design and graphic tool. We use it at Tamarillo Media all the time and have never seen it try to connect to any external computer. I would recommend it to anyone.

2007 January 5
David permalink

I have been using pixie for several years now and I never had any problems with it. I love pixie. It is small and easy to use, it does the job nicely. (I use ppcillin & symantec av)

David: DowTek Services

2007 January 6
Natan Furman permalink

Pixie is the best. Small rapid and tight. I used pixie for a long time in different mashines, and this tohna was always the best. Thanks for Eli. Please continue your work.

2007 January 16
Marcel permalink

I don’t know any other program that does the job where it was meant for, like pixie does. In dutch : fantastisch programma en ik gebruik het al eeuwen, zonder het minste probleem.

2007 February 1
Jeremy permalink

I have been using Pixie for quite sometime and think its a great tool. I use one of the better AV Scanners out there (NOD32) and it has never flagged Pixie as a virus or spyware.

2007 February 15
Umbrae permalink

Been using Pixie from this site for years and never had a problem. Even at work where we use horrible AV tools. Of course, they don’t even detect “REAL” viri, so I doubt it would give a false positive.

Honestly, I wonderfully great tool. Everyone should have it.

2007 February 20
HTorres permalink

I think everyone should get a real antivirus/antispyware. not those “yellow plastic duck” messy programs.

avg works great
http://www.grisoft.com

2007 February 26
Jimbo permalink

My NOD32 is happy with it and speaking of happy. This is a pefect little utility. Much more poweful than it appears. Thank You

2007 March 13
Bob permalink

I’ve used Pixie for years. Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition never bitched about it. The author is right - if your anti-virus software gives false positives dump it.

2007 March 13
leoleo permalink

I found it through the old tv show techtv.
never had any troubles with it, Actually would be lost with out it! I think its great little program for id ing colors for building ads or web sites. Takes the guess work out of colors.
Thanks Alot!
Leoleo

2007 March 15
Dark Wraith permalink

I’ve been using Pixie so long I don’t even remember when or how I first heard about it. I know I was still running Windows NT at the time (yes, it’s been that long ago).

To this day, I praise this program as a standing classic that has remained virtually unchanged (as far as I can tell), yet has withstood one confounded disaster of revision after another in “operating systems” from the good folks at Microsoft.

No one I know who knows anything about computers has ever mentioned to me that Pixie is some kind of Trojan vector. The story sounds suspiciously like Internet folklore, like that one back in 2001 about the bear icon in the WINDOWS directory that was supposed to be a virus in people’s computers. (It wasn’t; it was actually a Java developers’ program that most computer users wouldn’t have understood even if they had executed the program underlying the icon.)

Many thanks for writing Pixie and for keeping it alive. We who use it will tell anyone who’s interested about this very cool little program.

2007 May 18
jim2100 permalink

Hi
I just downloaded this fine program, and have no trouble or alarms going off!
I am color blind and need something like this.

Thanks
Jim

2007 May 18
Pat permalink

If one knows how virus programs detect, one of the things they do is look for a particular line(s) of code that are (supposedly) specific to a virus. A few years ago Symantec incorrectly detected Flash as a virus this way, they corrected the code within a few days. Pixie must use a line of code that’s the same as a virus… but that doesn’t make it a virus since it’s only a piece of similar code, not the entire thing. It’s up to the AV vendor to correct their definitions, the users needs to let them know they have a problem so they can fix it, and lose them if they don’t.

2007 June 7
Billy permalink

I’ve been using this program forever and can honestly say that the idea of it being a virus or a trojan is completely unfounded and if you believe internet sky is falling type rumors, then you’re missing out on a great product because of the findings of a poorly made virus detection product..

2007 June 18
Adrian permalink

I’ve been using Pixie for about a year. It’s one of the handiest little apps I’ve ever had. No more hours of working out colour chemes and HTML numbering… Phew…

Thanks for making this little app. I’ve had no reports of Virus/Trojan/etc from ZoneAlarm or Sophos on the two machines I use it on. This program is totally safe, and more than recommended.

Thanks to the writer, and up yours to the losers of the world who write code for malicious intent.

2007 June 23
James permalink

This is a most useful app. Thanks to Ilya for building it.
Oh yea, I use NOD32, a very reliable and accurate AV software and it doesn’t bitch about pixie.
Great job!

2007 June 28
cam permalink

norton anti virus DOES block this program. i tried to DL it at work and i would always get a corrupted file, then when i turned off norton’s auto-protect it finally worked.

as a sidenote, ive been using pixie for probably 3 years and its always been small and useful. thankyou coder

2007 July 6
maria permalink

thank you for pixie,
now i can more often easily change the site in the colors i want

2007 July 13
Busy permalink

I keep my computers very clean, and use Pixie on a daily basis over at Digital GreenLight and I’ve never had it show up as a false positive. Of course, I did my homework before choosing antivirus/antimalware software so I don’t really get any false positives. (I use Avast, if you’re wondering, although it does cause an annoying hang in Thunderbird on Vista)

Thanks for a great color tool!

2007 July 16
Hamman Samuel permalink

I have been using Pixie for some time now and there’s been no incident of my antivirus identifying it as a trojan. In fact, most of the trustworthy software I use to scan for trojans especially have never said Pixie has trojans in it.

I think the problem is with the new brands of antivirus that perform heuristic detection of viruses. In that case, Pixie would be identified wrongly as holding trojans because of its interaction with the clipboard and screen.

On another note, most antivirus can’t actually identify trojans because trojans mostly behave like ordinary applications (trojans are a little different from viruses).

I think there’s nothing harmful in Pixie. I could not do without it in my web designing :)

2007 August 1
Stu permalink

I have been using Pixie for years, and it’s one of the most useful programs ever. And I have never had problems with trojan/virus alerts or slowing my machine down :)

2007 August 18
Miguel permalink

I’ve used pixie with FileMaker Pro for year and never, never had any kind of problem. This app is just small, tiny and powerful. What else do we want?
I wish huge companies took Pixie as a programing example.
Regards,
Miguel

2007 September 27
James permalink

Damn those Trojans.

Ilya wrote: Comment spamming splogs too.
2007 November 4
Thomas Kvamme permalink

And if you’re in doubt just order the source code.

2007 December 31
John [dracho] Drachenberg permalink

First time I’ve ever heard of this. As an early-20s computer technician and web developer, I’ve grown up with many, many computers, through school and work - a PC service and sales shop, and of course home.
I wonder why antivirus companies (Norton was mentioned?) would spontaneously change their code to scan for your program?
Could you tell us what the AV program, version and the AV definitions date are that detect this anomaly?

2008 January 13
fyi permalink

Below are the results from VirusTotal:

File pixie.exe received on 01.13.2008 11:33:48 (CET)
Current status: finished

Result: 4/32 (12.5%)

Antivirus Version Last Update Result
AhnLab-V3 2008.1.12.10 2008.01.11 -
AntiVir 7.6.0.46 2008.01.11 -
Authentium 4.93.8 2008.01.12 -
Avast 4.7.1098.0 2008.01.12 -
AVG 7.5.0.516 2008.01.12 -
BitDefender 7.2 2008.01.13 -
CAT-QuickHeal 9.00 2008.01.12 (Suspicious) - DNAScan
ClamAV 0.91.2 2008.01.13 -
DrWeb 4.44.0.09170 2008.01.13 -
eSafe 7.0.15.0 2008.01.10 suspicious Trojan/Worm
eTrust-Vet 31.3.5451 2008.01.11 -
Ewido 4.0 2008.01.12 -
FileAdvisor 1 2008.01.13 -
Fortinet 3.14.0.0 2008.01.13 -
F-Prot 4.4.2.54 2008.01.13 -
F-Secure 6.70.13030.0 2008.01.12 -
Ikarus T3.1.1.20 2008.01.13 -
Kaspersky 7.0.0.125 2008.01.13 -
McAfee 5205 2008.01.11 -
Microsoft 1.3109 2008.01.13 -
NOD32v2 2787 2008.01.13 -
Norman 5.80.02 2008.01.11 -
Panda 9.0.0.4 2008.01.12 Suspicious file
Prevx1 V2 2008.01.13 -
Rising 20.26.62.00 2008.01.13 -
Sophos 4.24.0 2008.01.13 -
Sunbelt 2.2.907.0 2008.01.12 VIPRE.Suspicious
Symantec 10 2008.01.13 -
TheHacker 6.2.9.186 2008.01.11 -
VBA32 3.12.2.5 2008.01.13 -
VirusBuster 4.3.26:9 2008.01.12 -
Webwasher-Gateway 6.6.2 2008.01.13 -
Additional information
File size: 8224 bytes
MD5: a4c5070f5eb3ada647b57c3da0719fd8
SHA1: 3133142aa57ebb39f9b93bf38f8e206c607dace3
PEiD: Crypto-Lock v2.02 (Eng) -> Ryan Thian
packers: UPX
packers: UPX
packers: UPX
Sunbelt info: VIPRE.Suspicious is a generic detection for potential threats that are deemed suspicious through heuristics.

The program has been timetested, so I would definitely avoid this 4 applications if I am currently using any of them. False positives are not a good thing.

2008 February 3
ed permalink

I’ve been using pixie for a long time, it’s great program, thanks.

But i have a suggestion, sometimes i need to save a number of colors in a file for future use, and maybe pixie could do this work too, it can be a single HTML file inside pixie’s directory and each time you copy a color pixie would append a line like this

#color : <div bgcolor=#color > &nbsp </div > &lt br &gt,

i think it would be a one or two lines inside code, but it’d help very much.

Thanks for your work.

2008 March 14
FreeESpirits permalink

Being a software author myself, I’ve also had to deal with false positives. The cause of the problem seems to be some older versions of the UPX packer, which merely reduces the file size.

Since UPX produces the best results, many developers use it. Unfortunately, the scum of the Earth also have access to this nifty utility.

What a pity that the “professionals” who are supposed to protect us against viruses are incapable of adding 2 and 2 together and making provision for this fact:
*** The presence of UPX does NOT mean that the programmer has evil intentions! The majority of software authors (like the majority of all human beings) are decent people.

The solution for developers:
Repack your software with the latest version of UPX. Can’t guarantee that it will solve all problems, but so far (touch wood!) this has kept the false positives at bay for my stuff.

Hope this helps someone…
`_~

2008 March 16
Ned Benvin permalink

Hi Mr. Levin
Of many tools and programs I bought, downloaded and aquired in any way, PIXIE is one of the most useful. I always wandered how in the world other people can come up with such great colors and I could not? Well now I can, and for that thanks a million.
Best regards
Adriatic1

2008 April 5
Professional Website Design permalink

Thanks for a great little app. Nice and small.
Does one job very well.

Nick

2008 April 21
Sergio permalink

I just scanned the pixie dist. with avg anti-spyware, avast anti-virus and a-squared anti-malware, all up-to-date, and they all show nothing wrong with pixie.
Hope this help.

Sergio

2008 June 7
Liz permalink

Like some of the others, I’ve been using Pixie for so long, I’ve forgotten where I heard of it. Never had it flagged as a trojan or virus and I’ve used some of the best A/V on the market.

THANK YOU for creating Pixie. It does exactly what it’s suppose to do and is the best small little program.

Btw, you can add that it works in Vista as well. Liz

2008 July 3
SomeGuy permalink

I have been using pixie for a long time, thanks you for creating it. I haven’t had any issues with it. Thanks to the author for creating it.

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