Cleanware. What does it do and are there security risks involved?

Question

So I get these questions quite a lot recently from friends or family. And I thought this could be a good question for Security Exchange, because I couldn't find this kind of question here.

I recieved questions like:

Should I install program 'x' promising me to clean files from my computer?

A few examples: 'Dr. Cleaner [mac], Cleanmaster [Android], CCleaner [Windows]'

I always advise against, because I feel like there are security risks involved. You give lots of privileges to applications that have no real benefit, since most of this is built into the OS anyway

Am I right in this assumption?

Answer 1

Sure, we have all the possible cases here:

• Legitimate software that really try to clean your system without infecting you with malware or any other purpose.
• Malware disguised as cleaning software what try to steal information from you or just trojanize your computer to be part of a botnet or other similar "evil" purpose.
• "Grey" software that really clean your sytem but in addition have a "side effect". Usually this kind of software is not "real bad malware"... sometimes they only are what we can call "light malware" trying to steal non-sensitive info like banking data, they only steal statistics or general info and that kind of things (anyway is a violation of your privacy).

In my opinion if a computer needs a clean, it depends of the grade of the problem. Sometimes the best choice is to format and reinstall an entire clean system. If is a little problem sometimes there are tools that work very well but you must be pretty sure about that software and its procedence (sometimes is the hardest part).