KaZaA

· Overview ·
· Origins ·
· Distribution ·
· Operation ·
· Detection and Removal ·
· Research ·

Overview

Vendor Notes:

"The Kazaa Media Desktop is a second-generation peer-to-peer file-sharing service with which you can search and download media files from other Kazaa users. You can also organize, view, and play your media files through an integrated media jukebox, publish your own work, reach an audience, and communicate with other Kazaa users. Kazaa supports audio, video, images, documents, and other file formats. It features recommendations and an automated feature that lets people communicate with contacts.

Version 2.1 offers a new Web interface with sections for audio files, computer games, software, video content, and Kreate; rights-managed files provided through Altnet are displayed as gold icons in the search results screen and will release more gold icons in response to demand from content creators and owners; new skins; and more preloaded playlists of Altnet rights-managed music files from new categories, including jazz, folk, punk rock, trip-hop, and world beat." - Sharman Networks

Alias:

 Adware/BrilliantDigital [Panda], Adware/Medload [Panda], Adware/TopMoxie [Panda], Kazaa, Kazaa Media Desktop

See Also:

 I-Worm.Swen

Category:

P2P: Any peer-to-peer file swapping program, such as Audiogalaxy, Bearshare, Blubster, E-Mule, Gnucleus, Grokster, Imesh, KaZaa, KaZaa Lite, Limewire, Morpheus, Shareaza, WinMX and Xolox. In an organization, can degrade network performance and consume vast amounts of storage. May create security issues as outsiders are granted access to internal files. Often bundled with Adware or Spyware.

Similar Pests:

 P2P

Origins

Group:

 Sharman Networks Ltd.

Vendor:

 Sharman Networks Ltd. http://www.kazaa.com

Date of Origin:

 August, 2002

Distribution

Distribution:

 www.Kazaa.com claims "Over 214 million Kazaa Media Desktops downloaded so far... Over 3.2 million downloaded last week..."

Prevalence:
  • KaZaA: 864.2%
    • More Info

    Clot Factor:
  • KaZaA: 59

    • The "Clot Factor" is a measure of how much a pest "gums up" a machine by adding registry entries, files, and directories. As more objects are placed in a machine, manual removal becomes more difficult and more error-prone.

    Growth:
  • KaZaA: Insufficient data to report growth
    		•

    Operation

    Advertising:

    		 Yes. "Kazaa Media Desktop contains banner advertising and the option to install other third party applications in order to remain free to the user." [source]

    Storage Required:
  • KaZaA: at least 50949 KB
    		•

    Detection and Removal

    Automatic Removal:

    PestPatrol detects this.

    PestPatrol removes this.

    Manual Removal:

    		 Follow these steps to remove KaZaA from your machine. Begin by backing up your registry and your system, and/or setting a Restore Point, to prevent trouble if you make a mistake.
    Remove AutoRun Reference:

    Go To the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
    If you find the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run\kazaa, delete it and reboot the machine immediately.



    Clean Registry:

    Remove these registry items (if present) with RegEdit:

    Remove Directories:

    Remove these directories (if present) with Windows Explorer:

    Research

    More Info:
  • AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, Lycos, LookSmart, MSN, Yahoo!
    		•

    Research By:
  • Andrew Clover
  • PestPatrol's Pest Research Center
    		•

    Last Revised:

    		 April 03, 2005