Chrome GoogleCrashHandler.exe = Trojan

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  1. #1

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    Chrome GoogleCrashHandler.exe = Trojan

    If you have installed Chrome on your PC and look at your process list you will most likely find a process called GoogleCrashHandler.exe running which is located in your Documents and Settings \ Application data etc...

    It turns out this program is not a crash handler. It is an updater, in fact the program will run all the updates all by itself without even telling you. To me this makes it a Trojan.

    I stopped using Chrome a few months as it is just unreliable often drops connections even with Google sites but today I found it downloading an chrome update and taking up 125MB of RAM all in background. It did all this in background all without informing me or asking me or letting me see it was doing. WTF!

    That update could really screw up my machine if I was doing anything major to the registry.

    I only see this kind of behavior of companies that make spyware. A program that does what it does not say it does, a program which updates and modifies your machine and installs software without your confirmation is just not normal software. Legitimate software companies ask for your approval to execute updates and tell you what they are doing. They name their software so that you know it is a update program, don't name their exe files with names which a lies in the hope you will not kill the update process.

    I have removed Chrome from my machine.

    Yes they probably are doing this for our convenience but this could end up screwing up your PC or screwing up chrome itself.

    Yes, I know this is probably just silly bitching but it is just another move from Google showing us that they are the All mighty and we now don't even have the right to decide what software runs on our machines.


  2. #2

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    Oh noes my rams. The name CrashHandler is the same as Microsoft, it is a wrapper around the actual update process. Have a look with Process Explorer, it's to catch crashes during the update.

    Users love to click no on any popup message and so background updates are incredibly convenient. Take the continued usage of MSIE 6 and 7 as perfect examples. You can turn the updates off by using Chromium or use the loony Iron if you really want to block everything. Noting that this guy is a complete muppet as he refuses to submit his patches to Chromium,

    SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future

    That update could really screw up my machine if I was doing anything major to the registry.
    Use Ubuntu or whatever if your current OS is so broken, updates come through the repository channels and you can have full control over installation.
    Last edited by MrMoo; 31-05-2010 at 08:44 PM.

  3. #3

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    I have been using Chrome for a quite a while now. Have almost been using it exclusively now for most of my surfing. I'm on 5.0.375.55 dev version. Just checked my Processes and I don't see "GoogleCrashHandler.exe"

    I also have not experienced the unreliability you have mentioned.

    I update Chrome by going to About Google Chrome and it shows me when there are any updates available, from there I click on update. After it updates it tells me to restart Chrome.

    I'm on XP SP3, Pentium D 3GHz, 2 GM RAM


  4. #4

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    Here's a screenshot from process explorer, it's running because I just logged in and both Google & Microsoft run checks.


  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by MrMoo:
    SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future



    Use Ubuntu or whatever if your current OS is so broken, updates come through the repository channels and you can have full control over installation.
    Ubuntu and Debian updates are only for big macho & hairy admins. Whilst Linux is stable, one could almost work full time repairing what the damage updates do. Avoid them at all costs.

  6. #6

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    I might add unlike Chrome, with Ubuntu and debian you do have to approve the updates manually.