Virustotal flags installation files of v0.12 for windows as malicious

[MaximilianRettinger]

Hi,

I wanted to install activity watch on my new work machine running windows. Had good experience with AW so far on my linux machine. Can you please clarify why this is happening? I would really like to use this great tool, but I simply can't install with red warning flags like this.

Zip: Exe:

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi there! As you're new to this repo, please make sure you've used an appropriate issue template and searched for duplicates (it helps us focus on actual development!). We'd also like to suggest that you read our contribution guidelines and our code of conduct. Thanks a bunch for opening your first issue! 🙏

[VLEU]

This is definitely a false positive, and you should have no reasons to worry.

[ghost]

@VLEU Thanks for your reply. Doesn't really matter if I worry or not - it matters that the admin in the company that I am working for worries. So I'd have to provide some sort of proof to him, that this a false positive. Could you supply a valid reasoning to me why this is a false positive?

[VLEU]

VirusTotal simply aggregates the output of different antivirus vendors and URL scanners, it does not produce any verdicts of its own. 4/61 or 1/66 is definitely an indicator of a false positive.

When 4 obscure "virus scanners" that nobody uses and nobody has ever heard of say it contains a virus, and the other 100 true virus scanners, including all the big and reputable names say it is clean, that should tell them something. A simple explanation for the false positive is that the 4 vendors might have some overly aggressive detection filters (either that or they simply suck - in layman's terms).

Additionally, this entire project is open-source. If there was a problem, someone would most likely have noticed it and voiced some concern.

[florianklumb]

Handed in the 0.12.1 version to the Microsoft Security Intelligence portal and Windows Defender is now desensitized and will allow running the exe.

[ghost]

Thanks you both, that's more than sufficient for me!