So, on the 19th I made an entry how I was getting bored with GTA V and discussing about the Angry Planes mod, and found a link to a website that has it on Reddit.
Well… I took the plunge and got the mod. You guys are probably thinking “Good job, idiot. Enjoy having your passwords stolen.” Well, remember when I said it was a cleaned version? It’s actually true. And also I now have help to protect my computer.
And that help, is called ‘Sandboxie‘ (got it before I got the mod). Let’s talk about this before I continue. Basically, what Sandboxie is, is simply “mirroring” your file system. It stores a fake copy of your files. So incase some asshat decides to fuck with my computer (via a virus), they’ll be fucking with a decoy instead. And I can wipe that decoy out at anytime, cleansing the virus and keeping it from infecting my computer.
What sold me, is a video showing how powerful this program is against the well known (and feared) CryptoLocker Ransomware Virus (the one that you have to pay a ransom or you’ll lose your stuff). The guy deliberately downloads an active sample of the virus, and you see it pop up and how his files are now encrypted. I seriously freaked out when I saw this.
Yet he shows your files are perfectly safe outside of the Sandboxed version of your files. And all he has to do is just wipe out the contents of the Sandboxed version… and the virus went away, just like that. And his files are still completely safe. I…wow! I HAD to get it. And indeed I did. Been using it eversince.
So yeah, I’ve been using this. And the cleaned version actually is cleaned. Malwarebytes (the Premium Trial version I have) has detected nothing. No viruses. Everything’s clean. No csc.exe running in my Task Manager. No sign of this Fade.exe virus in my Registry. Very happy.
Though there is this one file that popped up, that literally screams “I’M A VIRUS!!!!” It’s this thing(top is my Sandboxed version(note the hashtags), bottom is my normal version). Thankfully, being told that GTA V creates this file. Rockstar claims it’s perfectly safe. So who am I to argue?
Anyway, been using the mod for a few days now, and still no virus detections (or strange files trying to access my network). Now, I’m not going to give out the link. All I can tell you is to search the internet. And also, please.. PLEASE be considerate of others before you too think about sharing the link. It’s unshared for a reason, to make sure this never happens again.
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I’ll say one last thing in my closing. I can’t thank the admins of GTA5-mods.com enough of making sure this doesn’t happen again. Everytime a developer creates a mod or updates it, they go through a rigorous test of antivirus and anti-malware scans before it shows up on their page where people can download it.
However, they still can’t urge caution enough to the end user (the downloaders). They do their best (of what’s humanly possible) to make sure the mod is clean, but you shouldn’t lower your guard and assume that the next top mod (or an unknown yet getting popular mod) will be clean. There will always be loopholes in security. It’s up to you to protect your own identity.
Get Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (there’s a free version), a good antivirus (such as Microsoft Security Essentials), and scan your computer thoroughly as if you’ve been infected (even though no viruses have been detected before). Never lower your guard, don’t click on suspicious links, and stay safe out there.