Did you just find a download or a file on your computer that is digitally signed by (?)??????????? Some of the security products refers to the detected files as PopAd and Riskware ( 0040eff71 ). The detection rate for the (?)?????????? files collected here is 38%. Please read on for more details.
You'll typically notice (?)?????????? when double-clicking to run the file. The publisher name is displayed as the "Verified publisher" in the UAC dialog as the screenshot shows:
You can view the additional details from the (?)?????????? digital signature with the following steps:
Here's a screenshot of a file that has been digitally signed by (?)??????????:
 -certificate.png)
As you can see in the screencap above, Windows reports that "This digital signature is OK". This means that the file has been published by (?)?????????? and that no one has tampered with the file.
If you click the View Certificate button shown in the screencap above, you can view all the details of the certificate, such as when it was issued, who issued the certificate, how long it is valid, etc. You can also see the address for (?)??????????, such as the street name, city and country.
thawte SHA256 Code Signing CA has issued the (?)?????????? certificates. You can also view the details of the issuer by clicking the View Certificate button shown in the screenshot above.
These are the (?)?????????? files I've collected, thanks to the FreeFixer users.
| Detection Ratio | File Name |
|---|---|
| 27/56 | setup_partlmw025.exe |
| 15/56 | setup_partlmw022.exe |
Here's the detection names for the (?)?????????? files. I've grouped the detection names by each scanner engine. Thanks to VirusTotal for the scan results.
| Scanner | Detection Names |
|---|---|
| AVware | PopAd |
| AegisLab | Adware.W32.Popad!c |
| Agnitum | PUA.PopAd! |
| Antiy-AVL | GrayWare[AdWare]/Win32.PopAd.bia, GrayWare[AdWare:not-a-virus]/Win32.PopAd |
| Avira | ADWARE/PopAd.906376.5, ADWARE/PopAd.906376.6 |
| CAT-QuickHeal | AdWare.PopAd.r5 (Not a Virus) |
| DrWeb | Trojan.Adkor.524, Trojan.Adkor.148 |
| Fortinet | Adware/Kraddare |
| GData | Win32.Application.Agent.382PJ0 |
| Ikarus | not-a-virus:AdWare.PopAd |
| Jiangmin | Adware.Popad.ao, Adware.Popad.am |
| K7AntiVirus | Riskware ( 0040eff71 ) |
| K7GW | Riskware ( 0040eff71 ) |
| Kaspersky | not-a-virus:AdWare.Win32.PopAd.bia |
| McAfee | Artemis!CD31E8E7BDE0 |
| McAfee-GW-Edition | Artemis, BehavesLike.Win32.Tool.cc |
| NANO-Antivirus | Riskware.Win32.PopAd.dytyip |
| Panda | Trj/CI.A |
| Qihoo-360 | Win32/Virus.Adware.7f0 |
| Sophos | Generic PUA FP (PUA) |
| Symantec | SecurityRisk.Downldr |
| Tencent | Win32.Adware.Popad.Szkz |
| TrendMicro | TROJ_GE.9146FB8E |
| TrendMicro-HouseCall | TROJ_GE.9146FB8E |
| VBA32 | AdWare.Kraddare |
| VIPRE | PopAd |
| Yandex | PUA.PopAd! |
| Zillya | Adware.PopAdCRTD.Win32.1070 |
The detection percentage is based on that I've gathered 112 scan results for the (?)?????????? files. 42 of these scan reports came up with some sort of detection. You can view the full details of the scan reports by examining the files listed above.
The analysis is done on certificates with the following serial numbers: