Malwarebytes warning

Mayayana

I know a lot of people here like Malwarebytes.
I tried it last night for the first time and thought it
worthwhile to issue a warning: Malwarebytes
grossly oversteps its job and can recklessly label
things malware, with potentially disastrous
results.

I ran the latest version and it found 10 "threats".
No explanations. No uncertainty. It just brought up
the final diagnosis and said let's clean 'em up. Among
the list was no malware at all. What MB did want to
remove were the following:

* The disk imaging executable for BootIt. (MB
called it "Backdoor.Bifrose", even though the
description for a bifrose infection shares nothing
in common with the file MB wanted to delete.)

* Software license in the Registry (Probably from
Visual Studio 6 and certainly not a risk, but a big
problem if deleted. I'd have to completely reinstall
VS6.)

* The Registry entries for Windows Media Player
ActiveX control.

* An entry in the Registry for LowRiskFileTypes.
It's a tweak to stop IE and other browsers from
interfering with downloads.

* The Registry entries I use to stop Windows
from nagging me about updates, AV and Windows
firewall.

Any of these items would have caused problems
if removed. Some of them could have caused big
headaches. I was lucky insofar as I was able
to figure out exactly what these "threats" were.
Most people won't be able to figure it out.

I then tried the latest Microsoft Malicious Software
Removal tool. That worked fine. It found no problems.

AV and malware hunters in general have become
overzealous software with limited usability. Like
xenophobic email servers that block any source
they don't know, this kind of software works well
by being overzealous, but it only *really* works well
for people who do very little with their computer
and can't be bothered with security. If your PC
is an email machine then there's probably no harm
in letting AV or MB nuke it. They might even end up
nuking something that should be nuked. But for anyone
else I think it's time to start taking all of these programs
with a grain of salt -- and be very careful about letting
them "clean up malware" without being very sure of
exactly what they're going to clean up.

I would certainly never try MB again. (I also got
stuck cleaning up junk it left behind in all users
app data. Not the first program with a bad uninstaller,
but still inexcusable.)