avast is flipping out

[Page42]

If you are an avast user, you're probably getting lots and lots of infection alerts... false positives all over the place, all with known, trusted programs.

See this dslreports thread for more... http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r234...-or-is-it-real

It's pretty radical.

I can't even get to the avast forum... probably overloaded with WTF inquiries.

[sded]

Not much to do except turn off the avast! providers until it is fixed. Problem occurs in both 4.8 and 5.0 for database update 091203-0

[Page42]

When every single program on your computer starts popping up as infected with the same trojan, it gets a little unnerving. Makes me thankful for security forums like Wilders and dslreports where we can quickly see what others are running into. As soon as I started reading that thread, I knew. But even prior to that, I wasn't taking action, because I smelled a rat.

[Vladimyr]

You only need to stop the 'Standard Shield'. It's not a good look though.
I haven't had any warnings from 5.0.259 091203-0 (yet!)

[sded]

You can leave the other shields on, but if they hit anything that needs to be checked in the common database, you may have further problems. You can also turn off just the file shield in 5.0 with the same warning.

[jdd58]

Getting the files back out of avast 5's quarantine is a pain also. Having to use extract rather than restore. Extracting to a location other than C:\Program Files and then copying the file back to it's original location in program files.

[Fajo]

ROFL something is screwed up bad. I booted my laptop that has the beta on it and it detected everything under the sun as a virus including Explorer.exe

[Vladimyr]

Originally Posted by jdd58

Getting the files back out of avast 5's quarantine is a pain also. Having to use extract rather than restore. Extracting to a location other than C:\Program Files and then copying the file back to it's original location in program files.

Have I missed something? 'Restore' from avast! 5 Virus Chest works for me.

[Fajo]

What kind of worry's me is people that are not Wilders folks, They might think this is a serious infection and crash there system.

[jdd58]

Originally Posted by Vladimyr

Have I missed something? 'Restore' from avast! 5 Virus Chest works for me.

Not for me. Found the fix on another forum, possibly avast's, can't remember for sure. Possibly caused by UAC. Running Vista here.

Edit: OK, disabling the shields allows a restore from quarantine.

ah heck i only had about 98 FP man they just put quite a ding in their reputation with this mess.

[icr]

Facing the same problem too.
120 FPs that is way to much
Thinking of uninstalling Avast temporarily and will monitor this thread.

[JerryM]

WOW! I was thinking of trying V5 if I could get it, but now I am going to wait until it is for sale.

Regards,
Jerry

[sded]

This is almost certainly a corrupted database problem with 091203-0. Turning off all or part (standard shield, file shield) of avast! will get you operational, but remember it will also disable much of the antivirus capability. You might also think about installing something like the free version of Prevx if you do this, since it is very small and non-intrusive. Others have installed Microsoft Security Essentials, which should actually work pretty well alongside Avast!

[dcrowe0050]

Originally Posted by Vladimyr

You only need to stop the 'Standard Shield'. It's not a good look though.
I haven't had any warnings from 5.0.259 091203-0 (yet!)

Same here testing Avast IS in Win 7 same build and definitions and no warnings here. Hope they get it fixed though.
If it is a corrupted database wouldnt everybody have the problem though?

[TheIgster]

Originally Posted by Vladimyr

I haven't had any warnings from 5.0.259 091203-0 (yet!)

Same here...no issues at all with Avast 5.0.259 and the same defs.

[Tarq57]

Ditto, no warnings (yet).
One thing I have read on the forum, if you are having multiple virus alerts it is recommended to not restart your computer.
Apparently some users have had important files required to startup blocked as a result of this update.

[Page42]

Before I read that warning I did reboot, and no harm came of it. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe the reboot issue isn't real widespread.

I have terminated the Standard Shield (per advice from a Wilder's member) and reconfigured avast to delay loading of services on reboot, as per a workaround post on dslreports.

This is one reason why I like having other security apps onboard... like Prevx and GeSWall!

[Page42]

This dslreports post sounds ominous...

"during a memory scan, my system screamed 4 times, each time I clicked "ignore" - knowing about this issue. It then REBOOTED without warning, without consent. Then it started a dos-level scan, DELETING system files. I immediately aborted the scan, and turned off Avast when it came back into windows.

This seems almost malicious - even sabotage. I have every option set to "Ask what to do" and yet it started to DELETE (NOT MOVE). Avast is in BIG trouble."

all i did was tell virus chest to do nothing uninstalled Avast and put MSE in for now i have no fallout or damage to OS or other programs. i have hitman pro and it uses g-data that has avast scanner in it but no FP in scan with hitman pro, whhich i thought was odd.

[TheIgster]

Originally Posted by general_zerohour

all i did was tell virus chest to do nothing uninstalled Avast and put MSE in for now i have no fallout or damage to OS or other programs. i have hitman pro and it uses g-data that has avast scanner in it but no FP in scan with hitman pro, whhich i thought was odd.

Don't think I'm going to go as crazy as to uninstall. As I posted in the Vipre thread, I'm going to disable all shields for now and stop all scheduled scans then. I also have Prevx loaded, so I should be OK until they solve this issue.

you should be fine

[Page42]

I don't want to uninstall avast at this point, but I decided to disable all active avast shields (not just the standard shield), plus I also unchecked "Test memory during application startup".

So my question is this... where is the setting that says to not run avast on system start up? Or does terminating all shields achieve this? I think it does.

Oh, and I also reset updates to manual... for the time being.

[sded]

AFAIK there is no Avast! setting to stop Avast! from starting, even if you disable all the shields, since it also acts as an on-demand scanner. You should be able to go to msconfig, though, and disable it from starting there.

[Page42]

I think you're correct, except you have to first go into troubleshooting settings and disable avast self-defense module. I use Startup Cop, and that's what I had to do to stop avast from starting up.