Question: will password protect rar keep cloud from alerting on files?

[jimdagys]

I have some useful softwares (for example an "activator") that some antivirus will alert. The software is actually not a virus; the software does its job according to its design and is not a virus. If I put this software on the cloud (for example email attachment or hotmail One Drive), the cloud server will often not allow uploading or downloading this kind of software, even if it is in a rar file.
My question is: if I put this software in a password protected rar file, will the cloud allow upload/download the software? My goal is to park certain software in the cloud for backup purposes.

[TreeTops]

Try it and see. If it doesn't work then change the ext to something that the cloud accepts. Just don't forget to change it back again when you want to view the file.

[jimdagys]

Well, of course I could try it, but I thought someone might have some insight on the topic. In my opinion, those cloud servers are pretty strict about this. I mean, I would think such "iffy" software in a rar file would be OK, but the cloud servers seem to be able to look inside a basic rar file and disallow uploading/downloading. Out of principle, I don't want to try and upload this kind of file to Videohelp; better to try to upload to yahoo or hotmail.

[jagabo]

If the site doesn't have the password they can't decrypt and examine the contents of the RAR file.

[hech54]

99.99% of what I upload (even for friends) is in a passworded RAR file.

[pandy]

My question is: if I put this software in a password protected rar file, will the cloud allow upload/download the software? My goal is to park certain software in the cloud for backup purposes.

If password protected rar (sorry but it was long time ago when i use rar - switched for 7-z where this is not an issue) encrypt also file names then you are 100% safe unless password will be broken (dictionary brute force most likely) then you should be fine.

[TreeTops]

But he says: " the cloud server will often not allow uploading or downloading this kind of software, even if it is in a rar file"

[jagabo]

Cloud servers can look inside unencrypted RAR files to identify threats; and they routinely do (and reject the file). They can't look inside pawsword protected (encrypted) RAR files.

[KarMa]

I believe you can still read the file names of the files in the password protect RARs, without a password. So in theory they could exact those file names and create a searchable database, which could be used to delete RARs. I doubt any filehoster would go this far but who knows.

[jagabo]

No, filenames can be encrypted too. Even if the filenames could be read you could change the names before archiving.

[pandy]

Use veracrypt container and show middle-finger to all.

[sophisticles]

First things first, the "activators" the OP is talking about are flagged as malicious software because the do contain malicious payloads. The fact that the program "does it's job" does not mean it doesn't also do other things.

Ever wonder how hackers build a 10,000+ strong army of zombie computers that they then turn around and sell control of to script kiddies that want to carry out massive ddos attacks? With these "activators", that's how.

Activators are small programs that "activate" proprietary software, you can find them all over the net for Vista, Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, TMPG, Procoder, Sony's software, Adobe's software, the list goes on.

I have tried every single one of these "activators" on a test mule pc, and in every case the system was eventually compromised.

The worst offenders are the modified "RemoveWAT" for Win 8/8.1, this one infects the pc immediately, there was one for XP that would turn the system into a dormant zombie machine, it would scan clean, and nothing would happen for a month then all of a sudden the network traffic and cpu usage would start to spike, as well as the hard drive activity and after much investigation and packet sniffing I was able to determine it was connecting to a C&C server and sending out massive amounts of junk packets.

Do yourself a favor OP, stay away from all these activators, if you want the software buy a legit copy, no one cracks proprietary software out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to make a buck.

[TreeTops]

+1 for sophisticles. I had no idea what a activator was.

[drjtech]

Same thing goes for keygen (key generator) files. The "bait" is the software key code generated; the "switch" is the malware, such as bots and keyloggers, left behind.

[El Heggunte]

....

NO ONE cracks proprietary software out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to make a buck.

Beware of the generalizations, please.

Some of the crackers do it because they can, because they think it's fun,
or because they think µicro$oft, Adobe & etc do deserve to have their software pirated.

[ackboo]

Some of the crackers do it because they can, because they think it's fun,

You are still willingly running shady unsigned binaries on your system, bypassing all the built in security, antivirus, and good practices. How do you tell apart the "good" ones ? What trust can you give to a random website or irc channel. Those harmless hacks are often repackaged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_pigs

[KarMa]

no one cracks proprietary software out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to make a buck.

For the most part this is untrue. Nor do they do it out of the goodness of their heart. Most of the time it's for the being seen as a good cracker by your peers on these private sites, the competition factor, and being able to use your cracked program as a currency to your ratio and to gain access to more private sites.

[jimdagys]

Thanks for the insight.
Some comments:
1) Years ago I uploaded a file in basic rar to hotmail. It uploaded ok and downloaded ok, but years later when I wanted to download it, they said it didn't pass the virus scan.
2) It might be possible that if hotmail cannot check a file for a virus (because password protected archive) they might not allow upload/download.
3) 99% of the time I use such software, it is on a public computer that is wiped clean and reset to a master copy of Windows after the user is finished.

[sophisticles]

Thanks for the insight.
Some comments:
1) Years ago I uploaded a file in basic rar to hotmail. It uploaded ok and downloaded ok, but years later when I wanted to download it, they said it didn't pass the virus scan.
2) It might be possible that if hotmail cannot check a file for a virus (because password protected archive) they might not allow upload/download.
3) 99% of the time I use such software, it is on a public computer that is wiped clean and reset to a master copy of Windows after the user is finished.

Mod's maybe it's time to close this thread, it's obvious this guy's asking for help pirating software.