OK, so we have been aware of a couple of cracked versions of HoneyPoint Personal Edition for a while now. The older version was cracked just before the 2.00 release and made its way around the torrent sites. We did not pay much attention to it, since we believe that most people are honest and deserve to be trusted. We also feel like people who value our work will pay the small cost for the software and those that just want to play with it and are willing to risk the issues of the “warez” scene would not likely buy it anyway….
However, today, someone sent me a link to a site that was offering a crack for HoneyPoint Personal Edition. The site was not one I had seen before, so I went to explore it. I fired up a virtual lab throw away machine and grabbed a copy of the crack application.
As one might expect, the result was a nice piece of malware. Just for grins, I uploaded it to Virus Total and here is the result:
Now, two things are interesting here. First, the crack is not even real and does not work. Second, once again, the performance of significant anti-virus tools are just beyond poor. 6 out of 41 products detected the malware in this file. That’s an unbelievably low 14.6% detection rate!
The bottom line on this one is that if you choose to dabble in the pirate world, it goes without saying that, sometimes you will get more than you bargained for. In this case, trying to get HoneyPoint Personal Edition for free would likely get you 0wned! Ahh, the hidden costs of things…..
If you are interested in a legitimate version of HPPE, check it out here.
In the meantime, true believers, take a deep breath the next time your management team says something along the lines of “…but, we have anti-virus, right…” and then start to educate them about how AV is just one control in defense in depth, and not a very significant one at that…