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Piriform Personal Security Concern with CCleaner Latest v. 5.45.6611


Ron2017

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Guest Ben CCleaner

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your feedback, please see the following thread for the latest information on this topic

 

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I did some tampering in regedit and after two or three attempts i was able to switch of the monitoring:

HKCU>Software>Piriform>CCleaner>SystemMonitoring

First open ccleaner turn off monitoring,and turn of  startup task for it ,then go to regedit and first change the highlited values with number 2 open ccleaner ,wait couple of seconds close it than change all values to 0,after that when you run the program monitoring will be off...

Capture.thumb.JPG.943152d5f1d6cdc559b5cfdf3e4e833c.JPG

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and if you reboot the PC, is it still off?

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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I'm attaching two files, as well as the associated script/code that will kill the process without having to open Task Manger all the time.  One is a batch file to manually run after you've used CCleaner and the other is a Task that will kill the process 30 seconds after any user logs on (this ensures it has had time to load, first, before attempting to kill it).  I'm not a coder, and I don't write stuff like this (much) so these are rudimentary but they work.  I don't see a way to auto-kill the task after closing the CCleaner window as the monitor uses the same process that runs the entire program, but someone may be able to improve upon this.

 

The following script and code can be copied and pasted into Notepad and then saved as their respective file types.  The batch file should be manually run after using CCleaner and the XML file can be imported into Task Scheduler.

**Batch File Script:**

@echo off
Taskkill /IM ccleaner64.exe /F
Taskkill /IM ccleaner.exe /F

 

**Scheduled Task XML Code:**

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<Task version="1.2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2004/02/mit/task">
  <RegistrationInfo>
    <Date>2018-07-31T09:25:50.4002489</Date>
    <Author>2J02CX1\newtonmcnay</Author>
    <Description>Kills CCleaner processes set to auto-launch.</Description>
  </RegistrationInfo>
  <Triggers>
    <LogonTrigger>
      <Enabled>true</Enabled>
      <Delay>PT30S</Delay>
    </LogonTrigger>
  </Triggers>
  <Principals>
    <Principal id="Author">
      <UserId>2J02CX1\newtonmcnay</UserId>
      <LogonType>InteractiveToken</LogonType>
      <RunLevel>HighestAvailable</RunLevel>
    </Principal>
  </Principals>
  <Settings>
    <MultipleInstancesPolicy>IgnoreNew</MultipleInstancesPolicy>
    <DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>false</DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>
    <StopIfGoingOnBatteries>true</StopIfGoingOnBatteries>
    <AllowHardTerminate>true</AllowHardTerminate>
    <StartWhenAvailable>false</StartWhenAvailable>
    <RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>false</RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>
    <IdleSettings>
      <StopOnIdleEnd>true</StopOnIdleEnd>
      <RestartOnIdle>false</RestartOnIdle>
    </IdleSettings>
    <AllowStartOnDemand>true</AllowStartOnDemand>
    <Enabled>true</Enabled>
    <Hidden>false</Hidden>
    <RunOnlyIfIdle>false</RunOnlyIfIdle>
    <WakeToRun>false</WakeToRun>
    <ExecutionTimeLimit>P3D</ExecutionTimeLimit>
    <Priority>7</Priority>
  </Settings>
  <Actions Context="Author">
    <Exec>
      <Command>taskkill</Command>
      <Arguments>/IM ccleaner64.exe /F</Arguments>
    </Exec>
    <Exec>
      <Command>taskkill</Command>
      <Arguments>/IM ccleaner.exe /F</Arguments>
    </Exec>
  </Actions>
</Task>

CCleaner Killer.bat

CCleaner Killer.xml

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Long time user here, I've been using and installing CCleaner on client machines for a long time.  Family members and friends let me know over the last couple of days that they were getting weird error messages after installing the latest version (about not being authorized to use the program, really?  As far as I know, we don't live in an embargoed country in Canada).  After receiving the same popup message while CCleaner wasn't supposed to be running at all on my machine, I found this thread.  What an eye opener...

I am now advising everyone I know to uninstall the program until Piriform changes its shady data collection policy.  I also posted this advice on my Facebook page.

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5 hours ago, marccouture said:

I am now advising everyone I know to uninstall the program until Piriform changes its shady data collection policy.  I also posted this advice on my Facebook page.

or roll back to an earlier version. all available at FileHippo.  (they had pulled v5.44 but it should be back up by now)

to find a version without any obvious problems you may want to go back to v5.40

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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Thanks to all, for your discussion of the problems with 5.45 and other thoughts on this matter. I complained in another thread, but my technical know-how is more limited than that of several participants in this thread. I am still a bit confused about the "phone home" firewall issue. With this sort of behavior, what exactly is the program TRYING to do (supposedly) and what can it nefariously GET AWAY with doing (even if the devs say they aren't)?

Here's my original thread, wrong-nesses included ...

 

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Hi,

I have been using CCleaner for many years. It is among one of the rare software that I purchased (which I regret at this moment)I will be advising all my clients to uninstall CCleaner until the monitoring issue is resolved and Avast stops snooping in machines.

Now I would have thought that Avast would know better than to try to scavenge info from users. What made this software so much fun was it's ability to do a good cleaning job on a PC.

People are sick and tired of nosy software.

Make it a better cleaning software, not a better spy. Don't turn paying customers into beta testers as MS is so good in doing.

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On ‎27‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 17:52, Paul Piriform said:

Hi all,

Thanks for your feedback. We value your input and want to acknowledge your concerns around the changes to active monitoring (heartbeat).

The new CCleaner heartbeat reports only non-personal, absolutely non-identifiable usage information for the purpose of improving CCleaner. This could be, the percentage of users who have experienced a crash, or are using scheduled cleaning.

First and foremost, being able to detect usage patterns across our entire user base allows us to act more quickly when things go wrong. Gathering information via this forum, support tickets or social media is helpful but with such a huge quantity of users, is not a small undertaking. The new 'heartbeat' delivers quantifiable, representative data, quickly, so when things go wrong, we can rectify the situation sooner. In the long term, having some insight into how our users use CCleaner allows us to improve it.

The heartbeat has been added to an existing CCleaner process called 'CC Monitor'. That process is controlled via the Enable Active Monitoring checkbox. This option covers both checking for updates and the new heartbeat. It has two other optional features: 'System Monitoring' and 'Browser Monitoring'. System Monitoring triggers an alert when you have a lot of junk to clean. Browser Monitoring is a paid feature that gives you intelligent cleaning options when you close your browsers.

After listening to your concerns, we have reviewed how this feature has been implemented and we agree that there are areas for improvement.

Please bear with us while our product and development teams work on this. We will update you as soon as we can. In the meantime, to disable all monitoring, please close all CCleaner processes via the Task Manager.

Thanks for your patience while we work towards a resolution.

Hi,

I use an older version: when not launched I don't have any ccleaner process in the Task Manager, and I unchecked monitoring and update search; ccleaner is blocked in the firewall. Ccleaner yet seems to phone home some time after boot finished, and I wonder if this is part of what you call the "heartbeat".

Thanks for your response,

5b68275366a6c_HeartbeatCCleaner_2.gif.2a92f9ede60dafd5411c1c1ea5180358.gif

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Hi All,

For now, until a fix is released, just rename updater.exe to updater.exe.OLD (Win 8.1 Pro 64bit here) in Program Files/CCleaner. As soon as I did this the startup item in Task Manager 'magically' disappeared. Also, be sure to sure to go to Task Scheduler and DISABLE the new task this latest version adds there.

Piriform, we already have enough 'Data Miners'  to deal with every day. So, just do what we paid for you to do and that is to help keep our systems clean.

Thank you!

Edited by bod dole
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14 hours ago, bod dole said:

  we already have enough 'Date Miners'  to deal with

Is that a website for lonely underground workers?

(Sorry , couldn't resist it).

*** Out of Beer Error ->->-> Recovering Memory ***

Worried about 'Tracking Files'? Worried about why some files come back after cleaning? See this link:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/52668-tracking-files/?tab=comments#comment-300043

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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39 minutes ago, bbrigg said:

To hell with this. As a Pro user for many years they can stick their spyware where the sun don't shine.

Odd day to decide to post when a new "fixed" version is out in the next day or so, but you're free to your opinions

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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