PUP.Optional.Legacy: WinZip Smart Monitor

[heyou]

This past Tuesday, I reinstalled WinZip. Today I ran my weekly AdwCleaner scan (version 7.0.2.1), and it identified WinZip Smart Monitor as a PUP. Meanwhile, my MalwareBytes scan finds nothing. When I tried cleaning, using AdwCleaner, I got this message: Caught unhandled unknown exception; terminating.

I'm not having any computer issues. Is this a false positive?

I've attached the logfile.

logfile.pdf

[heyou]

Some additional info (screenshots attached) after I scanned all the files in my WinZip folder with VirusTotal:

[Ried]

Hello heyou.  I've reached out to the devs regarding why WinZip Smart Monitor is being flagged and will get back to you on that - or they will respond.

Regarding the " Caught unhandled unknown exception; terminating" message, please see this Pinned topic

 

[cocochepeau]

Greetings,

WinZip Smart Monitor is indeed considered as PUP/PUA by AdwCleaner. It's not a false positive.

Regards,

 

[heyou]

Thanks to all who answered. So I should delete it? Can anyone recommend the best way to do that, if AdwCleaner won't do it?

[Ried]

You should be able to just delete that  C:\Program Files\WinZip\WinZip Smart Monitor folder but I'd prefer to have more information as to what it installed on this machine. You said you installed WinZip last Tuesday - did you intentionally install the WinZip Smart Monitor?  Where did you download WinZip from?  If you look in your installed programs list, do you see separate listings for WinZip and for WinZip Smart Monitor?

 

[heyou]

Hi, Ried! Yes, I intentionally purchased and downloaded WinZip 22 (Standard Edition) from the WinZip page: https://store.winzip.com/852/purl-downwz_wzd1cb?tracking=wz

Looking in my WinZip folder, I do see a separate WinZip Smart Monitor folder. So I'm assuming I should be able to delete that. I have Eraser software, so that might be a better option.

[heyou]

I should have noted that I intentionally installed WinZip 22; WinZip Smart Monitor was automatically installed along with it.

Edited November 7, 2017 by heyou

[jboursier]

Hello,

@heyou You can proceed as Ried said.

Regarding the crash, it's fixed in the upcoming major 7.1 - sorry that it happened..

Best regards,

[heyou]

Thanks to Ried andeveryone for your help! Just so you know, I also reported this to WinZip, asking why something identified as a PUP was included. I received this reply:

"Starting with WinZip 21.5, Smart Monitor is introduced to WinZip. It is being used to provide more granular control over the scheduling of the WinZip Background Tools. If you are not using these tools, you certainly can remove Smart Monitor. It will not hinder any other usage of WinZip."

I have no use for that, so I will delete it.

[PRK]

Same thing here, with this difference... I did not install winzip last week, last month... Got the PUP-message for the first time this weekend, after my weekly scan.
Do not know when smart monitor was slipped onto my computer, but I definitely don't ilke it.

thx for the intel, got it removed.

[Pop432]

This is a response from WinZip Technical Support re: Smart Monitor: "You are getting False positive warning from Malwarebytes for Smatmonitor.
The Smart Monitor handles scheduling the WinZip Background Tools (http://kb.winzip.com/kb/entry/403/) to run. If you use the tools, you will want to keep Smart Monitor running."  So if you don't use the tools you can delete it.  But Malware bytes needs to address the false positive issue.

Edited April 26, 2018 by Pop432

[bartolomeo]

This is very interesting. I have Malwarebytes Premium 3.8.3.2965 and WinZip Pro 23.0. Although I am getting the popups to update my WinZip (just got another a minute ago), I have not done so yet. I see this thread began almost 2 years ago and the last post (before now) was a year and a half ago, so I assumed the issue had been resolved. But my Malwarebytes runs a scan every night, and last night's scan is the first time I have gotten a warning about WinZip Smart Monitor. Why it is just coming up now? 

[exile360]

Greetings,

This thread is about ADWCleaner, not Malwarebytes, detecting Winzip Smart Monitor, so that would likely explain why up until recently Malwarebytes showed no detections on your system.  If you perform a scan with ADWCleaner I bet it would likely detect it.  It is usually the case that Malwarebytes and ADWCleaner detect different things from one another, though there is occasionally overlap (they use different detection techniques and separate Research teams to create their detection signatures/definitions and use somewhat different criteria for determining what they will and will not detect).

If you wish to see if ADWCleaner detects anything you can find it here.  If you require assistance with checking your system for threats then please follow the instructions in this topic and then create a new topic on the malware removal area by clicking here and one of our malware removal specialists will assist you with checking and clearing your system of any remaining threats.

I hope this helps, and if there is anything else we might assist you with please let us know.

Thanks