Filezilla Bundled Software

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From BleepingComputer, Filezilla offers bundled software and installer flagged as adware:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/filezillas-use-of-bundled-offers-sparks-outrage-from-users/

This topic isn’t a question, merely information.

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There was a large twitter thread on this several days ago, with warnings of what is or isn’t bundled with Filezilla, and many pundits warning it’s probably worth avoiding Filezilla at this point.

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i.e.
https://twitter.com/blowdart/status/1010438860738834433
https://twitter.com/martijn_grooten/status/1010577712002551810

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RDRguy

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Thanks for the links.

It seems easy to avoid issues by just not using the bundled installer or just not mindlessly leaving checked items in the installer. I am not saying that this default opted in behavior is ethical, but Koss seemed to give thoughts about doing things in an acceptable manner. Having Firefox or Avast suggested the first time you install is not that big of a deal. I installed it years ago and just update it. If you preinstall it, nobody will ever see the ads anyway, unless the point the pundits make is Koss and Co. can’t be trusted no more.

The only thing I find a bit more bothering is that search by Bing offer that clearly doesn’t belong to the premium offers that Koss is talking about. Maybe he doesn’t have as much control as he thought over the bundlers? In any case, it would be interesting to hear his response to that.

On a side-note, I always wondered why FileZilla needed to be updated so much. Is there that much in FTP that you can’t code a reliable, simple ftp client, with not much bugs left after a few years, done pretty much once and for all without needing to be updated so often? He talked about a new Pro product that does much more, but this shouldn’t influence the simple free version. It is always sad to see a good simple product go off for bad reasons.

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geekdom, RDRguy, SueW

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I switched to WinSCP after growing tired of FileZilla trying to bundle c*** in via SourceForge. No muss, no fuss, no bundleware. https://winscp.net/eng/docs/free_ftp_client_for_windows

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RDRguy, AlexEiffel

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FYI for those that really want to stay with Filezilla …

I’ve always gotten their “bundle free” Filezilla downloads (both client & server) from their “Official Homepage of FileZilla®” at …

https://filezilla-project.org/

If you poke around the website, you’ll also find that you can download their “portable” no need to install version (so far no bundled crapware, at least not yet) here …

https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?show_all=1

Or, if you’re looking for a specific previous version, you can find all of them (with & without bundled software) here …

https://download.filezilla-project.org/client/

I avoid getting anything from SourceForge these days as most if not all of their software downloads are overloaded with all sorts unwanted / unneeded nagware bundles.

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Bill C., geekdom, SueW, Elly, Kirsty

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On the no-frills version, I wonder what we’re being fed that we don’t see.

Of course, these days, I wonder that about all installed software.

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I went to the Clients site and saw Version 3.35.2 in 3 Windows64 flavors. I tried to download the NON-bundled EXE and got a warning from the Malwarebytes Browser Extension (beta) which blocked the download for “Reputation.” I did not continue. Is it ‘infected’? From what I have read, no, but I do not intend to find out. (Actually it was nice to see the extension at work.)

Screen captures are attached. It did not throw a warning for the for the portable .ZIPfile version, nor did a subsequent scan of the Zipped version with Malwarebytes. I did not try the bundled version. It is this type of behavior that trashes the reputation of what used to be a good utility. When I was working my organization had a volume license for Filezilla, I seriously doubt they still do. I will stick to my old version.

I used to use a Sourceforge program called PDFCreator until it had repeated warnings with different AV programs. Fortunately I had the ZIP version before the installer issues and still use it. IIRC, that too was from the installer downloading ads during the install. I routinely always disable in a program’s settings any check for updates or updating. As a result, I missed the infected version of CCLeaner.

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