Home Malware Programs Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) LightningDownloader

LightningDownloader

Posted: July 1, 2015

Threat Metric

Threat Level: 1/10
Infected PCs: 3,710
First Seen: June 3, 2015
Last Seen: July 7, 2023
OS(es) Affected: Windows

LightningDownloader is promoted as a helpful download manager, which also offers a file conversion option and a user-friendly interface. Although some users may appreciate some of the features of this software, it also causes a series of annoying side-effects. Due to them, the experts classify LightningDownloader as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP). As the license of this application is free, it relies on advertisements to make profits. The tool changes the settings of all available browsers as soon as it reaches your system. The ads it creates can be seen in various shapes, including pop-ups, banners and in-text ads. Although this behavior of LightningDownloader is explained in the Terms and Conditions very well, many users don't read these details and are often negatively surprised later on. Besides being annoying, the marketing materials may also expose your PC to cyber threats. In order to confuse the users, LightningDownloader intentionally copies the name of Lightning Download, which is a legitimate application with a paid license. The PUP often sneaks in unnoticed as an addition to freeware. The specialists advise the users to delete LightningDownloader from their systems in order to keep the OS clean and stable.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without pathLightningDownloader.lnkHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}{0F44DC3H-6E62-4961-A14B-95323C512F9B}_is1

Additional Information

The following directories were created:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\LightningDownloader%APPDATA%\LightningDownloader%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\LightningDownloader%PROGRAMFILES%\LightningDownloader%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\LightningDownloader
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