Virus positives are not necessarily "Malware"

[Joe Forster/STA]

(Sorry, edited the thread title. Not all people understand what a false positive is and not all know C syntax. )

False positives are when a virus/malware scanner tells you there's a virus/malware in a file when there's actually none, it just looks like one. This usually occurs with encrypted executables: the more heavily encrypted, the more chance for a false detection. If the scanner can't really find out what's inside, it rather gives a positive, just to be on the safer side of being wrong: false negatives, when no virus/malware is detected in a file but there is one in it, is much riskier.

If you're worried, check your downloads on http://www.virustotal.com. (Yes, it will falsely detect the same "malware" so don't be surprised!)