GUPlayer

Posted: December 15, 2014

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	5,995
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	19,313

First Seen:	December 16, 2014
Last Seen:	October 17, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

GUPlayer is a video player application that also bundles with software for generating additional advertisements through your Web browser. Due to the high correlation between longtime exposure to adware-promoted content and other security problems, malware researchers ordinarily would advise deleting GUPlayer and its affiliated programs whenever alternative video playback options are available. Despite GUPlayer's not categorized as a Trojan or any other kind of threat, you still may wish to use dedicated security programs for uninstalling GUPlayer and cleaning your browser of any long term side effects.

Getting Played by a Player

Although free video players are both common and necessary for even a cursory appreciation of downloadable or streaming movie content, not all video players are equally prone to partaking in safe business practices. Some, like the recently analyzed GUPlayer, provide additional features not mentioned in product descriptions. Consequentially, PC users who fail to dive through GUPlayer's legal terms and conditions may find themselves subjecting their browser to fresh advertisements when they'd only intended to watch a movie.

GUPlayer's installer bundles the video player with additional adware products still being examined by malware experts. These adware products modify your PC's default Web browser for loading new advertisements, with the usual symptoms as follows:

You may experience new 'sponsored' search results while searching the Web.
Individual keywords in a Web page's text content suffer injections of hyperlinks to third-party advertisements.
Your browser may load additional tabs or pop-up windows hosting third-party content.

GUPlayer's legal agreement also reserves the right for the company to transmit advertisements via other methods not noted here. Unfortunately, the all-inclusiveness of this clause, combined with the potential variations in its bundling practices, makes it difficult to determine any other consequences that could occur through installing GUPlayer and related software.

Playing GUPlayer Off the Stage

Although GUPlayer's business practices are less than ideal from the perspective of preserving a sterile Web-surfing environment, GUPlayer isn't threatening and shouldn't be detected as a threat. GUPlayer does include legitimate, working features for specialized playback of video files in formats such as MKV or MP4. In theory, these features could make GUPlayer a potentially 'wanted' program to some users, rather than a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program). However, the ease of finding alternative video playback options without GUPlayer advertising-based drawbacks causes malware researchers to find difficulty in recommending any reaction other than deleting GUPlayer.

GUPlayer distributes itself for free at its website, guplayer.com. More often than not, however, Potentially Unwanted Programs are distributed through bundles with third-parties on general freeware sites, or even through other kinds of attacks. In the latter case, your identifying the signs of fraudulent updates and other downloadable offerings can give your browser the necessary preventative protection from an unwanted case of GUPlayer adware.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without pathGU Player.lnkGUPlayer.lnkHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}GU PlayerGUPlayer

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\GU Player%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\GUPlayer%PROGRAMFILES%\GU Player%PROGRAMFILES%\GUPlayer%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\GU Player%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\GUPlayer