About a month ago, I used PyInstaller and Inno Setup to produce an installer for my Python 3 script. My AVG Business Edition AntiVirus just started complaining with today's update that the program has an SCGeneric Trojan Horse in the main .exe file used to start the program (in the folder created by PyInstaller that has all of the Python "guts"). At first I just thought it was a false positive in AVG, but submitting the .exe file to VirusTotal I get this analysis:
https://virustotal.com/en/file/9b0c24a5a90d8e3a12d2e07e3f5e5224869c01732b2c79fd88a8986b8cf30406/analysis/1493881088/
Which shows that 11 out of 61 scanners detect a problem:
TheHacker Trojan/Agent.am
NANO-Antivirus Trojan.Win32.Agent.elyxeb
DrWeb Trojan.Starter.7246
Yandex Trojan.Crypren!52N9f3NgRrY
Jiangmin Trojan.Agent.asnd
SentinelOne (Static ML) static engine - malicious
AVG SCGeneric.KTO
Rising Malware.Generic.5!tfe (thunder:5:ujHAaqkyw6C)
CrowdStrike Falcon (ML) malicious_confidence_93% (D)
Endgame malicious (high confidence) 20170503
Zillya Dropper.Sysn.Win32.5954
Now I can't say that these other scanners are ones that I have heard of before... but still I'm concerned that it is not just AVG giving a false positive.
I have submitted the .exe file in question to AVG for their analysis. Hopefully they will back off on whatever it is that they thought they were trying to detect.
Is there anything else I can do with PyInstaller to make it so that the .exe launcher that it created won't be considered a Trojan?
I was always getting some false positives with PyInstaller from VirusTotal. This is how I fixed it:
PyInstaller comes with pre-compiled bootloader binaries for different OSs. I suggest compile them by yourself on your machine. Make sure everything is consistent on your machine. For Windows 64-bit, install Python 64-bit. Download PyInstaller 64-bit for Windows. Make sure Visual Studio (VS) corresponding to your Python is installed, check below:
https://wiki.python.org/moin/WindowsCompilers
Compile the bootloader of PyInstaller on your machine with VS. It automatically updates the run.exe, runw.exe, run_d.exe, runw_d.exe in DownloadedPyinstallerFolder\PyInstaller\bootloader\Windows-64bit. Check below for more info on how to compile the bootloader:
https://pyinstaller.readthedocs.io/en/stable/bootloader-building.html
At the end, install PyInstaller. Within the PyInstaller directory, run
python setup.py install
I was able to submit the file in question to AVG's "Report a false detection" page, at https://secure.avg.com/submit-sample. I received a response back fairly quickly (I can't remember exactly how long, but it was less than a day) that they had analyzed my file and determined that it did not have a virus. They said that they had adjusted their virus definitions so that it would not trigger a false positive anymore. I updated my definitions and it was still triggering, so I contacted them again with my virus definition version, and I heard back that the version I had wasn't high enough - I think there was some delay on my definitions because I get them from a local server. But within a day I had the right version of the definitions and the false positive didn't trigger anymore.
So if you have a false positive with AVG, I would recommend this solution - fairly quick and easy to get a resolution to the problem.
I puzzled over this question for two days and finally found a problem with my application. The issue was with the application's icon.
Example for tkinter:
root.iconbitmap('./icon.ico')
When I removed this line of code, the false-positive Trojan was gone.
Also, make sure not to use --icon dependency when you are converting your .py file into .exe. Otherwise, this will cause the same false-positive Trojan detection.
I faced same issue for my small document register project code.
My temporary solution was to allow the app in windows defender and
other solution was to use the command pyinstaller filename.py instead of pyinstaller --onefile filename.py.
I dont know if it is correct. But it worked for me.
I searched many blogs for weeks. But I found nothing..
Today I found a way to convert py to exe without any virus errors.
Virus Total Report
So in this method you do not need to send any reports.. Actually It is very simple.
You need to install a module named Nuitka.
python -m pip install nuitka
Then you need to open command from from the file path. And use the command;
python -m nuitka --mingw64 filename.py
And that's all.
You can use the command
nuitka --help
You can find more at - Nuitka Guide
I had this same problem using python 3.8.5 and pyinstaller 4.5.1
In my case the first exe build was accepted by the antivirus (Windows Defender) but subsequent builds were flagged as having a trojan.
I solved it by using the pyinstaller --clean option every time I built the executable
Reverting back to PyInstaller 3.1.1 from 3.4 resolved similar issues on my end (at least temporarily).
As #boogie_bullfrog told, reverting to a previous version could be a solution. However I used *.spec file to store some data (like pictures and icons). I had the latest 3.5 version (August, 2019) and moving to 3.1.1 caused error when app was compiled (probably due to supporting Python 3.7).
So right now the easiest solution is to downgrade to 3.4
It supports specs from pyinstaller 3.5 and the onefile-app wasn't detected by Windows 10 built-in firewall
What I did was to solve this(make exe files non detectable as virus) was to downgrade pyinstaller by typing in cmd: pip install pyinstaller==4.1.0
And by the way it didn't work on 3.4.0 so I just randomly picked that version(4.1) and its pretty good looking so far :>
I'm pretty sure that it works on more than only that one version but that i experienced personally
Recompile and then reinstall your Pyinstaller bootloader manually.
This was a problem I had for a while, and my friend and I figured out this resolution with the help of many others. It almost always works to resolve the issue.
I posted the specific steps on my medium blog. Shared the link below, but the basic steps are as follows
Purge Pyinstaller Files within your Project and Rebuild
Uninstall Pyinstaller
Build a Pyinstaller Bootloader with your Compiler
Install the newly compiled Pyinstaller
Re-build your EXE with Pyinstaller, and make sure it’s not being be flagged as a virus
How to Resolve the Python Pyinstaller False Positive Trojan Virus
Part 1. Manually Compile your Pyinstaller Bootloader
Part 2. Working with Anti-Virus Developer(s)
I had a similar problem with a pyinstaller exe under Windows. Avira put that file into quarantine since it was considered potentially dangerous (due to heuristics, which means that some segments look typical for a virus, but no virus is actually found).
Keep in mind that the exe files you generate yourself are unique (as a consequence, the Avast scanner usually returns a message "you have found a rare file, we are doing a quick test", and delays execution for 15 seconds to perform a more thorough test).
My solution consists of some steps:
I have uploaded the exe to https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload to check it with many scanners. If just one or two are detecting a virus, you should be on the safe side.
In order to make your local virus scanner accept the file, you can manually accept it for your computer, but this does not solve the underlying problem, so on other computers it would still be flagged as a virus.
Therefore I reported the file as false positive to Avira, which can simply be done by sending it by email. Other scanners have similar feedback lines. I got a feedback by email within one day that it is ok, and the scanner on my pc agrees with this now. Hope that this helps with the next iterations of my exe so that it stays clean.
Had the same problem today. Win8.1 would keep flagging .exe as virus. Updated to pyinstaller 5.7.0 but the issue persisted. Uninstalled pyinstaller 5.7.0 and did a fresh install. Strangely, Win8.1 isn't complaining anymore!
I would like to know the LOCATION of the .exe in the JDK that opens .jar files. What I mean is this: Which .exe in C:\Program Files\Java\jdk*version number*\jre\ opens the .jar files, so that they can be opened using a double click? I used to be able to do that, when I newly installed the JDK+JRE. Unfortunately, Nokia PC Suite has made itself the default program for opening .jar files, so that it can install them on my Symbian. Which program do I 'Open With' to get back the old functionality? I already know how to do it from the command line, but this is easier.
There is no specific program to run jar files.
It is java.exe only with the -jar option
For eg.--> java -jar "foo.jar"
Right Click on a jar file and go to its properties. Change the default opening program to java.exe.
I hope that should work.
use javaw.exe if you don't want the command window.
This convention is widely followed by others like perl/python/ruby as well.
I know how frustrating this issue is. I looked all over the internet forums before I finally found the problem...Here is the answer below :
"The root cause for the problem above is, that a program has stolen the .jar association. If you have installed the Java Runtime Environment the first time, the file type called "jar" is assigned to javaw.exe correctly. "jar" is an abbreviation for "java archive" and javaw.exe is the correct program to execute a .jar. However, on Windows any program can steal a file type at any time even if it is already associated with a program. Many zip/unzip programs prefer to do this, because a jar is stored in the .zip format. If you doubleclick on a .jar, your pack program opens the file, rather than javaw runs the program, because your pack program ignores the meta information which are also stored in a .jar."
I have to run my jar file on a machine which does not have java installed. I went through this link:
http://www.java.net/node/655012
but I dont know how to do it. Can anybody tell me the steps that are required to be done to achieve this?
Thanks.
Wrap with launch4j to get an EXE file or deploy with java Webstart to get a clickable link on a web page (which prompt you to install Java)
Hoping that I do this corectly.
I am having the above issue. My development machine is win7 64. Im developing x86 application,(x86 set in compile options). I have downloaded sqlite-netFx40-setup-bundle-x86-2010-1.0.81.0 as my app will be on .net4. I have referenced the above dll, set it to copy local. Can confirm that its in the deployed dirrectory. Tests OK on development machine both as a debug and a fully instaled app. When I put the app on a separate win 7 64bit it wount run due to the Dll. It installs ok into ProgramFiles(x86) and runs untill the database is required. The dll is in the instaled dirrectory when instaled on the other PC. (fresh win instal).
I am using InstalShield and it is also telling me about an error ' -6248: Could not find dependent file system.data.sqlite.dll, or one of its dependencies of component' but it compiles OK.
Im stearing at the Dll in the program , in the references, the intelisence picksup the SQLite name and all the code is right. I have referenced by browse and then finding the dll.
What on earth could I be doing wrong ?
This has had so many views that I decided to answer this so as to help others.
The problem isnt a big deal once you know what it is, despite the error message that sends you almost in the wrong dirrection. The problem isnt the DLL, its one of its dependancies. Basicaly you have to install C++ distributable file on the client machine , even if you are using VB.net. I cant take credit for the find, it comes from here http://justanothersoftwareengineer.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/how-to-make-systemdatasqlitedll-work-on.html.
when running the application from inside the mingw console, it executes without any issue. But when I try to execute the same exe file in the debug folder of windows explorer, it says QtCored4.dll was not found. I even added the bin folder location to the environment variables, but then that produces another error saying : The procedure entry point _Z5qFreePv could not be located in the dynamic link lib... .So, can anyone give me a hint on how to solve this problem? Thanks.
As nax83 pointed out above, the problem was the path variable ambiguity due to multiple version of qt installed on my system. I removed all other qt-related values from my path variable and then explicitly specified all the paths to one single version. Recompiled and built the application, and there was my application, running without any jerks and problems.