Ways to absolutely confirm a download link?

Factual Questions
1

I was having trouble installing the newest version of Flash on my computer because of a general installation error. I got a direct download link for it from the official Adobe forums, and stupidly used it before I really did the research. The following is the link, copied and pasted from the post, broken just in case: (http:// fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/licensing/mac/install_flash_player_11_osx.dmg)

Now, I did the research after, and I did find one Adobe staff member who posted what appeared to be the same link (I know you can do tricks to make symbols look like letters and stuff). I checked for the Trojan mentioned a year or two ago, and couldn’t find any sign of it when using the Terminal commands suggested by CNet, and I can’t find any sign of the link or of another Trojan it could possibly be.

Generally, my research seems to indicate that it’s legit and without any tricks, but I want to be certain. What’s the best way to absolutely confirm the link?

2

You can be reasonably sure that the link is legitimate, since the domain (macromedia.com) is correct. Nothing before or after that really matters.

3

OK, I suspected that (though Googling the domain had some Russian words in the Google result, which made me nervous), but I thought I recalled tricks that enabled you to put in Unicode symbols (or something like that) in place of letters to create a good-looking URL. Am I misremembering?

4

In addition, I might just do a quick download of the free version of some OSX malware scanner just to do a check. Suggestions on legit and reliable ones?

5

I believe that the “unicode spoofing” vulnerability has been fixed in all modern browsers.

If you are really concerned, you can download ClamAV, and use it to scan your machine.

6

I’ve been looking over ClamAV’s website, and it seems a little intimidating. Can a not very program-y type like myself use it?

7

Yeah, it’s just an App.
Download it, install it, and run it.

8

OK. I also found ClamXav on the app store.

Thanks for the aid!

9

Where can I find free simple, basic video clip editing software (short .mpg files from Sony DSC-H55 Digital Cybershot? I am trying to edit light into a short clip of our Granddaughter stating to crawl.

I have tried the following that will work on Pics vs Video Clips:

  1. Windows Movie Maker, works cropping videos vs adding light.

  2. PhotoBucket, free ver. works editing Pics.

  3. Sony PMB that came with the Sony DSC-H55 Camera might do the job if I could
    understand the software. Help!

  4. Photoshop 7, works good with Pics but I have not seen any video editing
    options.

I hate the word “Free” and my ref is a small editor out there in applications, etc vs a Pro Ver.

Thanks In Advance!

10

I guess you could manually retype all the letters of the URL into the address bar instead of clicking on a link or copy-and-pasting. This will make sure you go to the address that you think you are reading rather than some secret behind-the-scenes address.

Or make sure you go to the official Adobe web site and download it from the Adobe download page. I almost gave you a hotlink to that page, but to be secure you should find it for yourself and not trust my links.

11

Well, the reason I needed to find the link in the first place was because the packages I was getting from the Adobe download page weren’t working.

And yeah, I should’ve done the manual typing thing, but since it’s too late, I don’t think it would help me confirm in this circumstance.