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Firewall blocking dropbox.exeexe

Hi community,

Can anyone tell me why Windows Firewall is blocking C:\program files (x86)\dropbox\client\dropbox.exeexe? Note the double exe at the end. It's that that is confusing me, otherwise I would just allow access, but I'm not sure if this is something fishy!!?

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Walter

Hey @Pinkysnickers, sorry to hear about this.

Could you try installing the latest, stable version of our desktop app from this page?

If you still get the same error, please send us a screenshot so that we can have a visual too.

Thanks!

mp3man

I've recieved this morning the same firewall alert too, including the same file with .exeexe extension and this is very suspictius. What should I do? Uninstall forever dropbox client? Thanks

Walter

Hey @mp3man, thanks for the nudge here.

If you're still getting this message from your firewall, could you send us a screenshot to have a better look into this?

mp3man

No I can't, due I denied the connection to this suspictious file and the message it didn't appears anymore

gales81

It's a weird thing, because it points to the dropbox directory, but there's nothing there. Not sure what to think about it. But I start to be suspicious, because I already have one blocked on the chrome - chrome.exe.exe. After blocking it both apps work well

file 2.jpg

cs1970

I've gotten this today:

The dropbox application folder has a "Dropbox.exe" file but no "dropbox.exeexe" file so I dont know if that is a Windows Defender issue incorrectly appending 'exe for some reason or if perhaps this is the name of a temporarily installed program that carries out autoupdates considering that there re two subfolders named "152.4.4880" and "PackageAssets" present which have modified date/times that coincide with the appearance of this dialog.

If it is your update/install process, it really shouldnt be presenting users with a security alert about a file with such an unconventional name.

Walter

Thanks for your feedback on this @cs1970 - we've passed it on to the team.

Let us know if you have anything else to add.

cs1970

A few days after I posted the above example, Windows Defender Firewall interrupted a Chrome update with a similar notification referring to "chrome.exe.exe" so I think the finger can likely be pointed at Microsoft here for the spurious suffix at least, whatever about validity of the alert being raised in the first place.

Walter

In that case, you may want to flag this with Microsoft directly as well @cs1970

Cheers!

gales81

I decided to reinstall windows shortly after, no issues since then. Not sure if it was a malware, but better safe than sorry.

Jan_Kreft

I have got this same error today, 17 June 2023. Previous posts are 1-2 years old but the issue is the same. I could not find an answer to the previous posts.

The file dropbox.exeexe does not exist in the folder, but the expected dropbox.exe does exist in that place.

Nancy

Thanks for posting here, @Jan_Kreft.

Can you please clarify when exactly you receive this message by Windows Defender? Do you click on something first and then, it appears or does it show randomly?

Jan_Kreft

Dear Nancy, thanks for getting back to me. It appeared after waking laptop from sleep. I did not do anything directly to do with Dropbox or anything I don't normally do after logging in.

Nancy

Thanks for clarifying that, @Jan_Kreft! What I'd suggest, in this case, is to report this to Microsoft directly, so that they can also take a look and check this on their end.

Just like you mentioned in your first post, you should only be seeing dropbox.exe on your computer, and not dropbox.exeexe, which shouldn't exist on your device.