Keyboard sniffer built into LimeWire
 

My investigation shows that the Basic (dunno about professional) LimeWire software installs a KeyboardProc hook. Can anyone else verify this? There should be no reason for LimeWire sniffing keyboard strokes while it is running; It should be able to use standard windows API for keyboard.

In fact, since it is Java based, the win32 native code is the only part that could install the hook!

What are they using our keystrokes for? I can verify the addition of the keyboard hook upon execution, and removal upon exit so I know it is LimeWire and not some trojan on my workstation (which I am good at keeping clean).

Ideas?

--g33k

I'm always suspicious of people with too many numbers in their names. They are usually nothing but clueless fifteenyearold wannabe h4x0rs who download some scripts from the internet but are too lazy to look into any source code.

I don't know where you got that ideas from, but the source code is available at www.limewire.org and if you'd bother to take a look at the native win32 code you won't find anything like a keylogger.

Maybe some of your securiy scanners or whatever you are using has a problem with the JVM.

And...
... DON'T EVER MENTION THE WORD "WORKSTATION" AGAIN IF YOU TALK OF A WINDOWS MACHINE!

Workstation
 

I guess you are right -- oops! I had thought LimeWire the Prof/Basic edition had the win32 native code written in a closed-source fassion.

Anyways my post got publicity, didn't it! Wahoo! I feel so special.

Workstation as a windows machine -- yes that is silly. I'm running Mandrake 8.1 under 2.4.18-pre3-mjc. Every once in a while I have to do some windows dev work under w2k -- otherwise I use Linux.

My name: g33kb0y. A name of status and power. heheh. I went into an IRC channel once where a bot said my name was 98% lame. Wahoo! I stand out. I'm not a wanna be hacker, and I don't download scriptkiddie toys -- if I need something, I write it myself.

--g33k

We did actually notice some odd behavior in this regard when we started including Cydoor with the program -- you notice severe performance issues with the command line in particular. So, thanks very much for the support, John, we appreciate it. As anyone looking at our native win32 code can see, John is right on here.

We asked Cydoor what was going on with the way back when, but they never gave us a good answer. The KeyboardProc hook is a very sensible explanation, though, so we'll look into it some more. Thanks!

Console performance issues
 

afisk --
Thank you for your support on this issue; after John's post I figured I was just barking up a tree -- Now, since a 3rd party is involved (Cydoor) I wonder what kind of code is hidden.

Is it true then that the home-compiled version of LimeWire would be without the Cydoor keyboard hooks?

--g33k

The Cydoor libraries are not loaded if they cannot be found. If you compile the project from the open source site, you can definitely avoid having these libraries loaded (which would mean that the keyboard hooks also would not be inserted).

You can also accomplish this by running ad-aware, but shh...don't tell! (Actually, half the world already knows this, so go ahead and tell if you want to).;)

Thanks.

Good to know! ;)

Morgwen

Mmm ...

If you remove CyDoor you have to edit the following line in limewire.props too .

CYDOOR_INSTALLER_CALLED=true

to

CYDOOR_INSTALLER_CALLED=false

Else LW will give errors .

Spyware bundled in Pro Version
 

I'm pretty disappointed! I just purchased Limewire Pro and the installation program came bundled with a virus... FSG.EXE. It contains the Gator-Trickler Virus, in other words a spyware program.

Why would limewire include such a piece of garbage with their software. It really SUCKS!

Ad-aware and MacAfee both caught the piece of trash on installation.

The LimeWire Pro installer does not come with any bundled software, including Gator. I know because I wrote all of the installers myself. Did you follow the link that LimeWire sent you in our e-mail after you purchased LimeWire Pro? Did you happen to also download the free installer?

Thanks, and our apologies for any confusion.

You make the installers for LimeWire ?
 

Just asking : Are you aware that allot of people are having installer crashes and leaving LW because they can't install ?
Isn't that a signal to step away from InstallShield and the Windows Installer engine ?

Can I make a suggestion :
Inno Setup 2.0.18 with Martijn laan Extensions .

It's a free one , get it here : http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

It's a installer wich isn't dependant on Windows Installer .
And it supports full blown PasCal Scripting , I can even make it play MP3's . :D

This is also the Installer that Clean LimeWire uses now .
We haven't had a single report of an installer crash or error .

BTW the Clean LimeWire project homepage has moved .
New url : http://limewire.vectorstar.net/

Now how can people discuss what they think of LW if they can't get it to install in the first place ??
You beter get these problems fixed , Afisk ...

You make the installers for LimeWire ?
 

Just asking : Are you aware that allot of people are having installer crashes and leaving LW because they can't install ?
Isn't that a signal to step away from InstallShield and the Windows Installer engine ?

Can I make a suggestion :
Inno Setup 2.0.18 with Martijn laan Extensions .

It's a free one , get it here : http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

It's a installer wich isn't dependant on Windows Installer .
And it supports full blown PasCal Scripting , I can even make it play MP3's . :D

This is also the Installer that Clean LimeWire uses now .
We haven't had a single report of an installer crash or error .

BTW the Clean LimeWire project homepage has moved .
New url : http://limewire.vectorstar.net/

Now how can people discuss what they think of LW if they can't get it to install in the first place ??
You beter get these problems fixed , Afisk ...

Thanks for the link. I will definitely look into it. We're very much aware of the installer issues. We updated to InstallShield Developer 7.0 because we had an upgrade subscription, and it was the latest and greatest technology, but we did not expect that it would be nearly as buggy as it is. It also has a really handy little tool for quickly making custom install panels, which is especially nice for all of us Java coders over here who only have a limited knowledge of win32 =).

We do have an alternate installer (the Nullsoft one) for the pro version, but we haven't built some of the more sophisticated installer functionality that's in the free version (custom panels, dynamic JRE download) into the Nullsoft one.

We may very well go back to the older version of InstallShield that works a heck of a lot better. We also may very well make some changes in the installer that will make all of this a bit easier.

Does the Inno Setup installer allow you to easily create custom panels, check the registry, etc?

Thanks very much again.

Yes, the entire works .

To sum it up : Everything you can do in PasCal !
Like I said before .
You can even make it play background music while installing if you want it to .

And make custom pages , change every message and text , graphic , you name it .
It can do everything you want with the registry .
Register Dll's , shared files .
It has a decent uninstaller too .
It can make shortcuts and change every aspect of them .
Like if you tried a CLW 2.1.3 installer released after 28/1/02 , you might have noticed that the intenet links launch maximized .

You can do everything the big and expensive installers can do .
And If you know a little PasCal , you're hooked .
Then the features are literally unlimited .

Just try it , It won't hurt to try .
It's free and more important there is no spyware or such involved bundled .
See , this installer isn't made by some big company like InstallShield but it's made by a single person .

Also , the program loads very fast .
How much time does installShield take to start up and get to work ?
2 mins ?
This thing loads up in less then 2 seconds .

An important thing ; It supports BZip2 and regular zip compression .
What this means , well CLW is crammed into 1.8MB for example .
That includes LW , CyDoor remover, help files , uninstaller , ...

There is also one little negative side on this installer .
Or a positive one since it forces you to learn the scripting language :
This program has no wizard !!
But the basic language is very easy to learn .

But here is the biggest thing I like about it :
<hr>
It does not need an temp dir to work .
It does not extract any files to an temp dir !
(Well exept for 1 dll file into the Windows temp folder wich wil be erased after installation)

This installer works on every Windows version ranging from NT 3.51 and Win 3.1 to Win XP

Is there an E-mail addres I can mail you ?
I'll zip up the script and files of CLW .
Then you can see for yourself .

Thanks for the response. I'd be happy to take a look at the script if you e-mail it to me at afisk@limepeer.com. I am probably more inclined just to use the older version of InstallShield that we already have, as it has the same functionality, and we had almost no errors with it. I also already have the old scripts and everything built for it, so it would be nice and easy.

I'd be very interested to take a look, though. Thanks again.