Ubuntu
putty package

issue with putty using sudo apt-get install. Is it malware?

Asked by don cochrane

My company has issued a malware warning for putty. The warning says to look at the about info and if the license version shows up as:

"Unidentified build"

this version is malware.

But I got this version using sudo apt-get install putty. I tried to perform "sudo apt-get remove putty" and then "apt-get install putty", but I got the same unidentified build.

Is this version safe? It may only be the windows version my company is talking about.

If the version is safe, can a bug be filed and the license info be fixed?

Thanks,

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Why do you need PuTTY at all? You can use the ssh command in a terminal....

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy putty

Thanks

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don cochrane (donald-cochrane) said : 		#3

See answers below proceeded by DC>

Why do you need PuTTY at all? You can use the ssh command in a terminal....
DC> potato potato tomato tomato

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy putty

Thanks

DC>
dcochrane@dcochrane-T540p:~$ lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy putty
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty
Linux dcochrane-T540p 3.13.0-52-generic #86-Ubuntu SMP Mon May 4 04:32:59 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
putty:
  Installed: 0.63-4
  Candidate: 0.63-4
  Version table:
 *** 0.63-4 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

DC> FYI: I already grabbed the UNIX source from the trusted PuTTY website, built the code and replaced the binary in my /usr/bin. It shows up correctly with the latest version info: "Release 0.64". I was just trying to be helpful and point out that the PuTTY "about" screen in the Ubuntu 14.04 archive looks an awful lot like the one being reported on the web as malware since the version info shows up as "Unidentified build".

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

You could report a bug. You didn't answer my first question either.

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don cochrane (donald-cochrane) said : 		#5

 In hindsight I probably should have simply created a bug report.

Sorry I wasn't more specific on what I was using PuTTY for. In this case I was hooking up serial USB console connections for embedded systems debugging.

Given that info, I guess your question could be rephrased, "Why Don't I use a console program like minicom rather than a GUI program like PuTTY?" My answer is some people like to use GUI and some people like to use console apps, hence potato potato/etc....

Thanks for your advice.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

But when you use PuTTY you are then in a 'console app' anyway, by default....

Think about it

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