@imspecial said in VirusTotal.Com Analysis of npp.8.1.9.2.Installer.x64.exe Reports "Detects executables signed with stolen, revoked or invalid certificates":

Maybe this has something to do with this?

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/malicious-notepad-plus-plus-installers-push-strongpity-malware/

If that is the case, then that is on the user for not downloading it from official/reputable places and has nothing to do with Notepad++ really, as it has no control on where the user get these files from.

Actually I was just addressing what I quoted above. I thought it would be a good idea to get your feedback on the file’s hash and the location of the download which I included in the original post.

Thx

@peterjones Thanks!

@pjamesburwell ,

Sorry, I don’t recall in my decade or more of using Notepad++ ever seeing an always-open-in-administrator-mode right-click option.

If you want that to always be the case, you might be able to use Windows OS techniques to accomplish it: right click on the Notepad++.exe executable, and go to the Compatibility tab, and select the appropriate checkbox on that tab. I think that will make it so Notepad++ will always open in Admin mode, even called from a shortcut or a right-click context “open file”/“open file with” action. But Admin mode is controlled by the OS, not by the application, so the final word has to come from the OS.

@PeterJones
or by using the newer way (which is so much easier) of just having the image in your copy buffer and pasting it in your reply, which will host the image on our server, so IT departments will be less likely to block it – and that way it would still be a valid image

264174d9-dacd-4da7-9f4e-39cac0b30413-image.png

Thanks Peter

@Michael-L-E said in Checksums:

Can anybody tell me why the SHA1, SHA256, and MD5 checksums aren’t available to compare with the downloads?

There does appear to be SHA256 info available for the 8.1.3 version. Look here, about half way down the site’s page. Titled Integrity & Authenticity validation.

Terry

@Mike-Geubel

Not 100% sure of what you’re asking, but it sounds like you want Notepad++ to be the shepherd of access to other things on the PC it is installed upon?

If so, it is not reasonable. That’s the operating system’s job. You should look into setting that up via the OS.

@Jnoel111 ,

Last-modified dates can be changed for reasons that don’t seem like the file being “modified” to mere mortals.

I found no documentation on this change

The executables and DLLs that ship with Notepad++ (including the updater and the plugin list) generally get updated with every release.

v7.8.7 was released June 8, 2020 . The zipfile version of the v7.8.7 downloads shows dates of 6/4/2020 for those files. But, like I said, the install process itself, or otherwise touching the files even if they weren’t modified, may have changed the dates.

If you’re worried that your files have been changed from the official distribution, you could download the zipfile version (make sure to grab the correct 32bit or 64bit, depending on your current installation) from the official download page, and do a comparison of the “modified” files vs the files in the zipfile – or just overwrite the files in your installation with the files from the zipfile to be sure.

Or just grab the most recent v7.9.5 download and install the newest version to get the most recent enhancements and bug fixes.

I just told https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/4881548cd86491b453520e83c19292c93b9c6ce485a1f9eb9301e3913a9baced/detection to re-scan, and this time it came up clean, but the Zillya scanner is no longer listed… so presumably sites that still use the zillya scanner will continue to get false positives.

@b00kgrrl , I don’t know if it’s possible to update your Windows Security / Windows Defender / whatever’s doing the scan, but maybe you could scan the installer again, and see if you can make it work without triggering Windows Security alert.

Thanks for the info. That explains why the code signing cert date does not align with the gpg key date. I guess I’ll remove all the exclamation marks since it doesn’t seem that urgent… or I would, if I could.

Vpn can help to protect online privacy during web surfing. I have experience with using VeePN VPN during remote working and unblocking new websites without problems.

@oneday-oneyear

?? - What are you trying to tell us ??

Hi @twgiu I just downloaded the 32-bit version of Notepad++ from the official website (https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v7.9.1/) and sent notepad++.exe to virustotal. One of the 72 engines detected malware (Trojan.Generic.giteg). I also uploaded the 64-bit version and it was clean.
Being only one engine, named Jiangmin, that detected the virus I’d would be inclined to say that it is a false positive. If possible you can test the 64-bit version and if it results clean, then use that version?

For peace of mind you can also post an issue in github (https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus) where notepad++ developers could confirm whether the downloads are legit or not.

@A-Former-User said in user manual outdated.:

it also doesn’t work when I click proceed to npp-user-manual.org(unsafe)

I could open that link without problems in Google Chrome, it seems the certificate is valid since October. However, www.npp-user-manual.org was giving the same warning you saw… I cleared my browsing data, including ‘Passwords and other sign-in data’, restarted the browser and now it working proeprly. It happened the same with Firefox and I ‘fixed’ the issue by clearing all my browsing data and restarting…
I guess there must be some place in the network and/or in our browsers that is keeping our local certificates from updating?

@Alan-Robinsin ,

In general, to edit a file in administrator mode, the Notepad++ application has to be run in administrator mode. That is accomplished the same as any other Windows application, and is not unique to Notepad++.

An example sequence that worked for me

Exit all instances of Notepad++. Run one instance as administrator (you may have to browse to the notepad++.exe and right click, run as administrator). it should say [Administrator] at the end of the window title File > Open, and browse to the file you want to edit. You should be able to save, if it was really an administrator-mode issue.

I came across this today also. Very annoying to have exe and dll files not digitally signed. It really puts some doubt into the integrity of the files of the assembly.

Please digitally sign on next release please.

@Phil-Randal see here.

I really hope, that you are just “playin” a security analyst.

Access via network sharing requiers administrative rights so the person could copy the directly to ProgramFiles folder and the user is helpless.