CCleaner Phoning Home v4.18.4844

[extray]

Hello,

 

I notice when launching the new CCleaner it phones home (checked using TCPView), why is this?  I have update checking disabled in the GUI, how is this reflected in the ccleaner.ini?

 

185.31.19.175    443    TIME_WAIT

 

Thanks.

[Willy2]

It checks whether or not there's a new version of CCleaner available. Did you tick the option "Enable Active Monitoring" ?

[Andavari]

CCleaner.exe is also signed with a Symantec VeriSign digital signature for validation, I don't know if that could occasionally require some Internet connection or not depending upon how your system is configured and the security software you have installed.

[extray2]

It checks whether or not there's a new version of CCleaner available. Did you tick the option "Enable Active Monitoring" ?

 

No, I have update checking DISABLED.  But it is still contacting piriform.com on every launch.

 

I did not notice this behaviour in previous versions.  Why is it checking the version number then if update checking IS disabled (if it is actually doing that)?

 

I have all monitoring disabled.

 

(Lost my account info for extray)

[extray2]

CCleaner.exe is also signed with a Symantec VeriSign digital signature for validation, I don't know if that could occasionally require some Internet connection or not depending upon how your system is configured and the security software you have installed.

 

The ccleaner binary has no zone identifier alternate data stream (that causes Windows to prompt the user before running and checks signatures), so I'm sure it's not that.  Also no security software is interfering.

[Janshi]

Same problem here:

CCleaner 4.19.4867 establishes an Internet connection to 185.31.19.175:443 every time it's started. Automatic update check and monitoring functions are disabled.

I'm back to CCleaner 4.17.4808 - no such problem with it.

Why does version 4.19.4867 behave in the way?

[Willy2]

Then I would assume that you've spotted a bug in CCleaner. Developers of CCleaner, are you reading this ? Bug to be fixed !!!

[Anabna]

I've not updated CCleaner for a while, so have only just noticed this change in behaviour after installing V5.  It's nothing to do with update checking or active/system monitoring as I also have these turned off. 

 

I don't know the answer to your question without looking in depth as the traffic is over HTTPS, however it connects to the following:

 

www.piriform.com (which is the fastly.net IP address)
license.piriform.com
ocsp.godaddy.com (certificate checking)

 

Take heed Piriform because although people may trust the software vendor enough to give them admin rights in the first place, they don't like it when software starts making outbound connections on it's own, unless it absolutely has to (which CCleaner doesn't if update checking is switched off).  The older versions only used to ping Piriform during installation (and sometimes open a page on their website). 

 

Piriform need to be careful as they're going down the same route Comodo did with their firewall (in particular CIS 6), which led to many people going back to the older versions and refusing to update anymore or just ditching their software altogether.  A sure-fire way of upsetting users is software making unnecessary internet connections on it's own accord, adding features no-one asked for that run in the background all the time (as it's seen as bloatware) and unpopular UI design changes, especially ones that are change for change sake and don't improve anything.  I don't understand the fascination with minimalist 'Metro' UI design anyway, it's been in use for a few years now, but I haven't met one person in that time who actually prefers it.