Snap/Software store potential virus

store
#1

Hello, I’m looking to ask/confirm my suspension about the potential of a virus being on the stores. When looking to download the tor browser I found 2 listings being: “Tor Browser Launcher Settings”, and “Tor Browser Launcher” Both have scathing reviews and are probably avoided by most. However there are some people out there that still might use these. I just wanted to ask/confirm that they are malicious and get them removed from the stores as they link to someones personal similar altered github and not tor’s official. Said links being:

Official: https://github.com/TheTorProject

Link in question: https://github.com/micahflee/torbrowser-launcher

Mods please remove this post if I’m incorrect however I think this is really sketchy and would act as compromised if you downloaded these programs and change passwords ASAP if you were victim to this.

Would report if I could on these forums/inside the store if I could find any place to do so.

#2

could you actually link to the snapcraft.io page ?

looking for “tor browser” using the search only reveals a “tor middle relay” and the “onionshare” snap, there does not seem to be a “tor browser launcher” or a related “settings” app …

1 Like
#3

Is it possible this is actually https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/torbrowser-launcher from the Universe repo’s?

The presence of bad reviews isn’t necessarily indicative of the tool being a virus; and it’s worth noting the reviews in the app store won’t be just from Ubuntu, they could be from other distributions and other packages, e.g even the Flatpak. The review system is a little confusing IMO in this aspect.

3 Likes
#4

Great point. I will add from my own experience that Parrot OS also contains both “Tor Browser Launcher Settings”, and “Tor Browser Launcher” from the initial install. I have not checked the repo to determine whether or not it matches that link though. I’d imagine the bad reviews are indicative of many other distributions as well and not correlating to a virus.