Norton thinks steam games are trojans! Created 16 years ago2007-07-07 16:23:51 UTC by StoneFrog

Okay. Whenever I attempt to run a Steam game, after the "preparing to launch" generic spiel, a message pops up saying the game is unavailable. In the corner of my screen, Norton pops up saying, and I quote:

"Auto-Protect has blocked Trojan Horse as a security risk. Your computer is secure."

If I look in my log, it says that the trojan file is said to be...

C:Documents and SettingsMYNAMELocal SettingsTemp~*.tmp
*The file is either [RANDOMLETTER].tmp, [RANDOMNUMBER].tmp, or [RANDOMLETTERANDRANDOMNUMBER].tmp.

I've done various scans and looked over the internet, and cannot find anything. The trojan (if it's even a trojan, may just be an error) seems to be causing no damage at all to my system except not allowing me to play Steam games.

I use Norton Internet Security 2007. Does anybody have any idea what is wrong?

Sadly I can't suggest anything that would help with this situation but I will say that my experience with Norton has been terrible plus people always told me not to use it as it is quite crap.

Perhaps try AVG Virus Scanner and see if that picks up anything...

Yeah, AVG AntiVirus is quite ftw..

Clicky clicky

Check out the reviews... Lulz.

I get the same thing after every Steam update, except it thinks its a worm, not a trojan. Delete your Steam exception and re-add it manually.

why... use... Norton..?

head in hands

I use Norton Internet Security 2007. Does anybody have any idea what is wrong?

Exactly that.

Antivirus programs have to be one of the biggest scams in the computer world today. You hear about viruses everywhere, and then you get conned into thinking that you need to pay some company a ton of money for a lame program that invades your computer, or otherwise you're completely open to viruses. Don't believe the hype.

The problem is that people just don't know there are free alternatives, and that they're commonly much better than the programs you have to pay for.

From personal experience, having AVG Antivirus and Spybot S&D installed, you can protect yourself from just about anything. AVG is spectacular at detecting infected or dangerous files when they get onto your hard drive, and doing a spyware scan with Spybot every month or so, I've literally NEVER found any viruses on my computer.

The best suggestion I can make though, is to just stay away from stuff that looks dangerous. Keep your eyes open, and don't just download any file out there. do all of this stuff, and you'll likely never have problems with viruses again.

Then, go and enjoy Steam.

i've never gotten a virus running AVG either. imo norton is more intrusive than any spyware anyway

PS: DCC SEND STARTKEYLOGGER

ZOMG DCC SEND STARTKEYLOGGER

oh dear

appsvc32.exe slows down my computer more than msblast.exe so I switched to NOD32

Steam in general is worse than a trojan. It's invasive, impolite, and completely pointless...

It's not pointless, it allows you to get automatic updates and buy a ton of games online. If it wasn't for that, I never would have gotten games like Episode One as quickly when they were released.

Not only that, it organizes all your Valve games (which I have a TON of personally), and allows for easy access to bazillions of servers.

And I still don't see why people say it's invasive. It doesn't install itself in places you don't want it to be, and it hardly takes up any memory. It's entirely contained. You can even disable all the news alerts and popups, if you find them annoying.

I've done various scans and looked over the internet, and cannot find anything. The trojan (if it's even a trojan, may just be an error) seems to be causing no damage at all to my system except not allowing me to play Steam games.

I use Norton Internet Security 2007. Does anybody have any idea what is wrong?

Disable Auto Protect, also disable Worm protection for like 5 or 24 hours through options/configurations. Also a warning window may appear (when you try to run steam) saying "steam.exe trying to access the internet. Do you want to allow it? etc. etc."
Press "Permit" and it should work fine. That's all I can remember about how to run it with norton installed.

As people have mentioned above, you can completely protect yourself using 100% free software (and a bit of piracy). I'm currently running AVG, Spybot: Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware and ZoneAlarm Pro (LOLZ piracy) and I've had absolutely no virus or spyware problems for the past 3 years.

I'd suggest switching over.

Instead of diisabling auto protect, I found a better method (which I will list for others with this problem):

For Norton 2007, go to the second tab (the Internet Security, not Protection Center), open the "settings" section and click on "Auto-Protect" and then "Configure". Go down to "Scan Exclusions" and add the directory it keeps claiming the trojan is in (in my case C:Documents and SettingsMYNAMELocal SettingsTemp) and add it to the SECOND list. The first list is for things to ignore during virus scanning, the second is things autoprotect, aka the stupid nagger program, to ignore.

Presto! A little risky seeing how a moderate amount of bad internet cache and junk ends up there, but much safer than disabling autoprotect altogether.

I use Norton, Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. I will admit Norton isn't that great, and vs spyware/adware it = phail. But the above is a solution for people, like me, who cannot switch over at this time.

Oh and Sajo - as far as I know, permitting programs (which can also be done under "Program Trust" in firewall configurations) just allows said thing to access the internet without being questioned by Norton - about accessing the internet. AutoProtect will still question it about hostility. (Besides, all my Steam things, including all four hl.exes and all three hl2.exes are already set to permit)

Thanks for the help everyone. Even the people who just complained about Norton - me seeing a new post in the thread gave me temporary false hope, and that's something.

Srry is a Valve fanboy. Now sad. Now imagine, Counter-Strike used to run at 60fps+ on a PIII 700MHz, 128MB and a TNT2. What happened? Steam happened.

For all it's automatic patching, game organizing goodness, instant gratification goodness, there's a dark side.

First, it's DRM, Valve can shut down your account at any time, ban you from playing online, and your games will dissapear. Everytime you want to play a game, Valve demands you authenticate yourself, even if it's an offline single-player game! Not everyone has 1/2GB of memory! Steam has a noticeable drag on a computer, about as much as Windows Live Messenger 8. According to the Steam Hardware Survery, almost half of all users have only 512MB.

What does Steam do with these system resources? Well takes 10 seconds to login, checks for mandatory updates & displays the STeam store. It also data mines. Valve talks about Steam being a great tool to collect data to solve technical issues, but Steam actively snoopes around, the only thing I can be sure it's trying to find is pirated Valve games.

Second, automatic patching is very nice if and only if you have a 5Mbps+ internet connection. Otherwise you have to wait and wait for a game to update, just to play it, even Half-Life 2. Dial-up users are left in the dust. For them, they've always bought games on disc and installed it without a fuss. Even a CD Key online check takes only a little bit of bandwidth. With automatic patching, Valve can force crappy updates upon us, such as continual de-optimization, DWP, Steam Profiles, and ADVERTISEMENTS!!! With Steam, it's stay updated or get the fuck out.

The Steam store is a great idea actually. If Steam was just a store and one-time CD Key verifier, that'd be great. It's instant download purchases for those who don't care about a box (and the consumer protection laws that come with buying a box). Today it's just a giant shill for non-Valve games that can be bought as a Steam-less version on CDs/ online download.

Steam is an annoyance. I'd be great if Valve got rid of it.

Oh and Sajo - as far as I know, permitting programs (which can also be done under "Program Trust" in firewall configurations) just allows said thing to access the internet without being questioned by Norton - about accessing the internet. AutoProtect will still question it about hostility. (Besides, all my Steam things, including all four hl.exes and all three hl2.exes are already set to permit)

That's why you have to disable both

Disable Auto Protect, also disable Worm protection

After setting permit it may still ask it, don't know why... I guess after updating steam..

I'd re-install Norton SuckWare 2007. I had errors with pretty much everything and I re-installed it after wiping it with the Norton Removal Tool. The only thing it didn't fix was the crippled performance.

Stop whining about Steam. I've been using it for a long long time with little to no problems (the only problems I have experienced have been in it's early days). Valve aren't a big scary corporation who want to steal your personal information. Stop whining, seriously.

And now back on topic, Symantec consumer products (aka Norton products) are awful in every aspect. I've heard Symantec's corporate products are very nice, but they're also very expensive and they cannot be pirated as they require a subscription as far as I know. I personally suggest NOD32, if I remember correctly it has the lowest detection failure rate of all consumer AV's, it doesn't cost much and it has VERY low CPU and RAM usage (the whole thing is written in Assembler). I'm using it and I have ZERO performance degradation, plus it's easily removed and doesn't leave any traces behind. It's also updated 10 times a day or more on average, at least from what I've observed.

dave787564534634 is a fucking moron.
steam is NOT DRM, you fucking faggot. nor does it take up any resources at all. i've personally installed and ran steam, and played HL1, on a shit-ass computer with 128mb of RAM. so shut your fucking hole. secondly, steam does NOT poke around your HDD for illegal files, or for anything else. just look at the executable from a file access analyser.
and de-optimisation? get a fucking brain. no company wants their games to run worse.
steam is the best thing to happen to the gaming community in general. the profits go straight to the developer, meaning cheaper games. VAC is superior to punkbuster, and steam ensures that every client has the same version. server browser, auto updates, localized versions, etc etc.
steam will never be "shut down", so just do us all a favour and get the fuck out of the community.

Srry is a Valve fanboy.

I'm not denying it, but that doesn't mean you're not a fucking idiot. My laptop runs Steam fine, and it has only 384 MB of memory and a 1 GHz processor. Stop whining about it, and accept that you're either completely wrong or extremely uptight about where your memory goes. After all, you were the one who said you didn't have the NVIDIA icon on your taskbar because it "hogs memory"...

...automatic patching is very nice if and only if you have a 5Mbps+ internet connection. Otherwise you have to wait and wait for a game to update, just to play it, even Half-Life 2. Dial-up users are left in the dust.

This coming from the person who normally acts like everybody in the world has a T3 line running into their house, and posts oversized and unoptimized images all over the place.

Furthermore, Valve doesn't regularly go around disabling accounts manually, but you WILL get VAC banned if the game detects that your EXE has been changed or tampered with. Oh noez, here comes Big Brother shutting down all the lame-ass h4xx0rz, whatever will we do?

What they said!!!

And now back on topic, Symantec consumer products (aka Norton products) are awful in every aspect. I've heard Symantec's corporate products are very nice, but they're also very expensive and they cannot be pirated as they require a subscription as far as I know.

The only reason I still use the copy of SAV Corporate I jacked from work is that it doesn't require any subscription at all, even to use LiveUpdate or to get the latest defs. Still, it's only as good as Norton gets.

Steam is a data miner!

Give us a break and stop acting like a dumbass for once.

I like how everyone in the thread can't argue without using the work "fuck".

Including you!

hah.. I think my city's local news channel is done through powerpoint.. and I checked the channel today and it was paused/put to desktop because norton anti-shit came up with a "Your norton has expired." message.. I agree though.. Norton is more intrusive than most spyware.

I always disliked Steam. Which is why I don't use it. I believe it gives Valve a door into your computer and if Valve can get in what's gonna stop a hacker? Hence, no Steam! Even then, Windows XP disallowed a lan game because it didn't like HL attempting to connect an external source, ie the lan connection. Fortunately, Windows is so fake you just tell it to shut up and it doesn't bother you again.

my god, you're a faggot.

So what, when you've seen what viruses you can get from programs like steam then you would be cautious. I've lost an entire computer from a virus, the boot sector was corrupted and the anti-virus didn't stop it because they can't touch the boot sector. Then bang! My computer never started again.

my god, you're an idiot.

Fixed.

Come on though, you didn't "lose your computer" to a virus. It's an impossibility, really. All you lost was a bunch of data and your XP install, at most. Viruses don't effect hardware or make your computer blow up.

...

Or else you're just completely clueless and figured that your computer was "broken" because Windows wouldn't boot, and you bought a whole new one.

No, this virus got to the actual programming that tells your computer to start up. Not that the power button didn't work, just as it was booting up, it would crash and restart over and over and over again. Why someone would make a virus like that I don't know. You are right though srry, I could of had it fixed but it was a laptop so it was cheaper to get a new one. then replace the hard drive. No matter though, I get a better one.

Answer me this: Did Steam give you this virus?

There is no "programming that tells your computer to start up", it's all in the OS.

Ever heard of a little thing called BIOS? You hit a key during startup to get into it, and then you can change your drive boot configuration so that it loads CDs before your hard drive, and you insert your XP install or recovery disc. No money lost at all. I say again, viruses don't effect hardware.

'Tis sad people don't know better, really. :

This was before Steam. I had a similar program that would connect to the internet every time it started up and was always downloading updates and patches. My anti-virus said they were okay and no other program I had did this. I didn't download anything other than zip files (which are quite safe because anti-virus can check files in them) so I determined it must be that program. You see, anti-virus can't check exe files or pack files because what's contained is unreadable. Eg, you don't know whats in a HL pakfile until you open it and look. If an object in the pak is a virus, when you open it you trigger the virus. I know I can't be ENTIRELY sure it was this program but it was really the only open connection to my computer.

No way in hell Steam gave you the virus. That's just poor computer management.

i will say it again, just to reinforce the idea to you dumbasses: viruses don't affect hardware.

furthermore, viruses can't touch your BIOS. why? because there is absolutely no bridge between windows and the BIOS. none. only the BIOS has access to the BIOS.

and there is absolutely no way steam will encourage virii to your system. i could leave my system on 24/7 with no security whatsoever with steam running and never get a virus. so either you downloaded some sort of shifty pirated software, on you're trying to dabble in steam piracy. either way, you must have no antivirus at all

i've never had a virus delete or corrupt my files. never.

furthermore, viruses can't touch your BIOS. why? because there is absolutely no bridge between windows and the BIOS. none. only the BIOS has access to the BIOS.

And thankfully, even if it did, you could always pull your BIOS battery out and reset it. Tadaaaa...

Haha, he deducted himself that a program he says is like Steam gave him a virus that affected the hardware, which is impossible.

Oh, I see now!

and i should point out that there are hundreds of thousands of steam users out there, and there hasnt been a single report of it infecting a computer. in over three years of use. why? because steam is an ONLINE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, not a damn keylogger.

I didn't have steam at the time. It was a similar program. I had to tell my anti-virus to allow this program I had to connect to the internet. Like windows firewall. I had to tell it to let HL contact outside the computer for a lan game because it said HL was untrusted. I can't remember the name of the program I had, it was almost eight years ago and I got rid of it, but I'm just saying Steam gives Valve access to your computer when it connects. Good anti-virus software like what StoneFrog has knows this and prevents it. Hence his problem.

Good anti-virus software like what StoneFrog has knows this and prevents it.

I lol'd.

Stop pulling stuff out of your ass.

hey, guess what?
the browser you're using now gives the entire internet access to your computer. windows update? yep. antivirus definition update? yep. microsoft word? you better believe it connects to the internet. steam is goddamn secure.

and norton is NOT 'good' antivirus software.

...windows firewall. I had to tell it to let HL contact outside the computer for a lan game because it said HL was untrusted.

You're just using Windows Firewall? No wonder you got a virus.

Anyway, from what I've heard the chance of getting a virus is like 1 in a 5 000 000 chance. And I've only heard like half a dozen people ever got it and now systems DO have the BIOS completely separate. I haven't heard from it in over eight years anyway so it doesn't really matter.

In response to OP, uninstall Norton and your worries are all gone.

Just so EVERYONE knows, this was over eight years ago, I had 98 back then.