Cydoor is a spyware and adware first detected in 2003.

Cydoor software

The Cydoor software downloads advertisements from the Cydoor servers, to be displayed in the Cydoor-supported software. It is built as a program integrated into the parent application but is not uninstalled along with it. It automatically updates itself and displays advertisements regardless of the speed of the Internet connection of the user. Cydoor consumes about 3.4 MB of hard drive space, and cannot be

uninstalled An uninstaller, also called a deinstaller, is a variety of utility software designed to remove other software or parts of it from a computer. It is the opposite of an installer. Uninstallers are useful primarily when software components are install ...

using the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

uninstaller An uninstaller, also called a deinstaller, is a variety of utility software designed to remove other software or parts of it from a computer. It is the opposite of an installer. Uninstallers are useful primarily when software components are install ...

. No uninstaller is provided. Cydoor is often bundled with commercial

Peer-to-peer file sharing Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program tha ...

programs such as Kazaa,

iMesh iMesh was a media and file sharing client that was available in nine languages. It used a proprietary, centralized, P2P network (IM2Net) operating on ports 80, 443 and 1863. iMesh was owned by American company iMesh, Inc., who maintained dev ...

and

eXeem eXeem was a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing client using the BitTorrent protocol. eXeem was designed to replace the need for centralized trackers (servers which co-ordinate the transfer of metadata across a BitTorrent network). It largely failed ...

. It is also present in download manager applications such as NetAnts and FlashGet. According to Cydoor Desktop Media, the ad technology reaches 70 million unique users worldwide. Formerly, a user could uninstall Cydoor and continue to use the program installed with it, but that is sometimes no longer the case. Now Cydoor is treated as a vital piece of

software code A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program ...

by the parent program, and removal may cause the program to stop working. The website's FAQ explains, "Our components...are the main revenue generating components for our software partners," as the way of explaining their supposed necessity. Programmers have successfully removed Cydoor's software from Kazaa (resulting in Kazaa Lite and Kazaa Resurrection). The program has been known to cause problems in Windows, but the company asserts that this is due to an old and buggy version of the software. The code downloads advertisements to the "infected" system but it does not collect personal information. The company said this is the case unless "the user voluntarily supplied it".

Removal

This software can be removed by most anti-spyware programs, such as

Ad-Aware Adaware, formerly known as Lavasoft, is a software development company that produces spyware and malware detection software, including Adaware. It operates as a subsidiary of Avanquest a division of Claranova. The company offers Adaware in ...

and

Spybot - Search & Destroy Spybot may refer to: * Spybot – Search & Destroy, a spyware and adware removal computer program * Spybot worm {{for, the antispyware program, Spybot Search & Destroy The Spybot worm is a large family of computer worms of varying characterist ...

References

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External links

Cydoor article at Adware Report
Spyware Adware