Does dqx clarity contain malware?

[shamtriss]

I keep getting notified of malware for "Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Instructions.ajt" when i try and download this. Is this something I should be concerned about?

[jmctune]

Hi there,

Sorry for the delayed response! No, dqxclarity does not contain malware. There are a few reasons why this happens:

The executable that's being generated for this project is not officially signed by a certificate authority that Microsoft recognizes (it's not signed at all). Certificates cost a recurring subscription and I'm not interested in maintaining a certificate for the purpose of this project.

The other reason that it may be flagged is because of this line here in the launcher:

https://github.com/dqx-translation-project/dqxclarity/blob/main/app/launcher/dqxclarity.ahk#L275

which is launching the file run_clarity.ps1 in the dqxclarity directory with an Unrestricted argument. This tells Powershell to:

• Ignore the fact that this script was downloaded from the internet and to run it anyways
• Ignore the fact that the script isn't signed

Without this flag, we can't launch the script without the user making global system changes, which isn't worth it for the user's overall security for a video game.

In the installation troubleshooting section of the documentation, I do make a suggestion to add the entire dqxclarity folder to your antivirus's exception list, which will stop your antivirus from flagging dqxclarity.exe as a virus. I would suggest doing this as this is the file that is being marked as such.

You can also review the source code of how the launcher works here and also how it's built here if you're curious.

One way to help Microsoft stop flagging the executable as a virus is to submit the executable to them for malware analysis. They say this helps with eventually adding the executable to a trusted list, but I haven't had any luck.

I hope this answers your question, but let me know if you'd like more information.

Thanks!