Keylogger/Trojan one in the same?
 

I tried to open some keylogger setup files but was alerted right away by Norton that they contained trojans. Is a keylogger typically a Trojan in itself because of what it does? I got these from so-so sites and just would like to sure that these "Trojans" are really what they seem to be.

not sure, but wouldn't take the chance. why do you need a keylogger? do you REALLY need one? If so, I'd write it myself, or get someone I trusted to, because there's some seriously delicate info involved in something like that.

I believe you were thinking correctly, oldtimer. I would also guess that Norton alerts on it as a trojan because many trojans include keyloggers. So your program's functionality itself is what Norton is freaking out about.

Norton sucks anyway.

A key-logger is a Terminate and Stay Resident (TRS) program that runs in the background of the OS, logging every keystroke made on the machine its on. Depending on the author of it, they might have changed the code on it to work as a backdoor program and foward all the info it gathers to some site. It is basically used to spy on whoever uses the computer and it compromises the integrity of security.
People place it on computers used in internet cafes or very travelled public places or wherver people are likely to use it with their credit cards, then the program forwards the info and then...
(You get the point..)

A backdoor program comes in many forms, most are used to stay resident and collect information, recieve and forward instructions, or can be instructed to use your system resourses in a concerted attack to a site. (A DoS attack.)

Both have malicious code that basically sets off the warning bells of any anti-virus program because they aggressively utilize memory resources of the computer without valid instructions from
any core component of the OS. (In other words, spawn processes from the memory and have no outlet or parent program to write-back to.)

But you should know what you are getting yourself into if you got a key-logger on your machine, that only mean that you are up to no good anyway....
:)

Exactly what I was looking for. :)

no norton says it is a trojan because it's essentially the same kind of program, but if you have a legit keylogger, then it is not a trojan. i've used them b4 simply to see if other people are using my computer, intresting but only if you need it.