rustup-init.exe x86_64-pc-windows-gnu flagged as virus

[wufh43]

Verification

• I searched for recent similar issues at https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/issues?q=is%3Aissue and found no duplicates.
• I am on the latest version of Rustup according to https://github.com/rust-lang/rustup/tags and am still able to reproduce my issue.

Problem

The rustup-init.exe binary for x86_64-pc-windows-gnu is flagged as a virus by multiple scanners/vendors:

• https://metadefender.com/results/file/bzI2MDYwM1ZfMHZzcERjYW52R1ZFMmtkZnl2_mdaas
• https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/03dbaae1d33a4d220bd0d202e5092955dae859c119074192ca513f8c4713fff7

The MSVC-based target ( x86_64-pc-window-msvc) has only one negative ("LIKELY_MALICOUS") verdict:

• https://metadefender.com/results/hash/86478E53F769379D7F0EBFA7C9AA97CB76CA92233F79AA2CC0DBEE2EFAAC73C7
• https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/86478e53f769379d7f0ebfa7c9aa97cb76ca92233f79aa2cc0dbee2efaac73c7

Steps

1. Download binary from https://static.rust-lang.org/rustup/dist/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/rustup-init.exe
2. Upload to scanning website
3. Read report.

Possible Solution(s)

No response

Notes

No response

Rustup version

1.29

Installed toolchains

-

OS version

-

[rami3l]

@wufh43 Thanks for reporting.

However I'm not sure if there is a lot the team can do about it... As this is essentially a trust issue?

For example, "TrojanDownloader:Win32/Agent is family of Trojans that download unwanted software from a remote Web site" clearly matches what this project does, just in a slightly different perspective simply means this program can download other programs, which is exactly what this project is about? 🤔

cc @ChrisDenton

[ChrisDenton]

There's nothing much we can do about it. Unsigned binaries are prone to being flagged by anti-malware vendors. You can try to inform each one that it's a false positive.

The windows-gnu installer has it much worse because it's rarely used.