[Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev] Virus in download [Tux Typing]

[David Bruce]

Hi Emma,

I'm nominally the maintainer for Tux Typing although development has been
dormant for quite a while.

Please tell us the download site just to be sure we are talking about the
same thing, but I am almost certain that this is about the self-signed SSL
certificates on the Alioth site. This has been known for years and is not
under the control of anyone from tux4kids. Basically this is a completely
volunteer project and no one wants to pay for commercially signed
certificates out of their own pocket. As a result,  browsers generate scary
- sounding warnings and ordinary users think this has something to do with
a virus. Every year or so we get emails saying "tuxtype/tuxmath has a
virus" and this is always the issue.

So you have a couple of options:
1. Take my word for it and go ahead and download our software despite the
browser warnings.
2. Instead you can go to sourceforge.net and download the exact same files.
Unlike Alioth, SourceForge is a commercial site that has a budget for
things like commercial SSL certificates, so your kids and their parents
won't get any alarming warnings.

If the situation you are seeing is something other than what I described
above, please let me know. That is, tell me exactly what the popups say and
what malware has supposedly been detected. But I have been through this
cycle about ten times in the last few years, and always it has been a
matter of users seeing a warning that the site isn't trusted, and
immediately they think that means the software has a virus.

Regards - David Bruce
On Mar 3, 2015 3:55 PM, "Bill Kendrick" <nbs at sonic.net> wrote:

>
> Hi Emma, I'm not a developer on Tux Typing, but I'm
> Cc'ing my reply to their development discussion list.
>
> What URL were you linking to? (Just to make sure it
> was, in fact, the official site. :) )
>
> Thanks!
>
> -bill!
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 03, 2015 at 04:38:55PM +0000, Emma Dugan wrote:
> >
> > Mr. Kendrick
> >
> > I am a teacher that uses your wonderful products -
> >
> > I hope you can solve a problem or pass it along to someone who can.
> >
> > Recently parents and also a teacher at my school have downloaded Tux
> typing from the official site and ended up with a virus of some sort.
> >
> > Basically - tons of pops ups start appearing.    I have removed the link
> from my website - hopefully temporarily while it gets fixed.
> >
> > Thanks for your attention to this.
> >
> > Emma Dugan
> > Teacher - Markham Elementary
>
>
>
> --
> -bill!
> Sent from my computer
>
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