Ī study done by How-To Geek in 2015 revealed that was packaging malware inside their installers. In 2015, research by Emsisoft suggested that all free download portals bundled their downloads with potentially unwanted software, and that was the worst offender. In 2014, The Register and US-CERT warned that via 's ' foistware', an 'attacker may be able to download and execute arbitrary code'. The main problem is the confusion between the content offered on and the software offered by the original authors the accusations included deception as well as copyright and trademark violation. His post was very popular on social networks, and was reported by a few dozen media.

In December 2011, Gordon Lyon, writing under his pseudonym Fyodor wrote of his strong dislike of the installation manager and the bundled software.

CNET admitted in their download FAQ that 'a small number of security publishers have flagged the Installer as adware or a potentially unwanted application'. This installer included trojans and bloatware, such as toolbars. In August 2011, introduced an installation manager called CNET TechTracker for delivering many of the software titles from its catalog. According to Sean Murphy, then a General Manager at CNet, 'Spigot continues to be a great partner to, sharing our desire to balance customer experience with revenue.' Malware distribution Up until 2015 CNet used Spigot Inc to monetize the traffic to. Software publishers are permitted to distribute their titles via CNET's site for free, or for a fee structure that offers enhancements. Registered users may also write reviews and rate the product. Downloads are often rated and reviewed by editors and contain a summary of the file from the software publisher. The Software section includes over 100,000 freeware, shareware, and try-first downloads. Videos are streams (at present) and music was all free MP3 downloads, or occasionally rights-managed WMAs or streams until it was replaced with last.fm. The offered content is available in four major categories: software (including Windows, Mac and mobile), music, games, and videos, offered for download via FTP from 's servers or third-party servers. The domain attracted at least 113 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a study. Initially it resided on the domain, and then for a while, and is now.

CNET Download (originally ) is an Internet download directory website launched in 1996 as a part of CNET.