Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Mac Security => Topic started by: info1782 on May 22, 2019, 06:10:08 PM
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I just ran a scan on my mac and came back with, "unable to scan: 34" It appears these are all mac-related, but I'm no expert.
Can you take a look at what it can't scan, and let me know if everything looks legit? I recently had a scare with an infected site downloading a fake adobe player to my computer and trying to force open the application. I then found a plug-in running a day or two later, and now I'm worried my computer is completely infected.
How would I know if something was embedded into these 34 files?
https://pasteboard.co/IfTLh59.png
https://pasteboard.co/IfTLBVI.png
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Hi info1782,
The "archive is corrupted" error simply means that the scan could not unpack the archive file, not that the file is corrupted. This most often happens when a proprietary file compression system is being used.
The "The file is a decompression bomb" error does not usually mean that the file actually is a decompression bomb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_bomb). Typically, this error occurs with heavily compressed files as they can bear some resemblance to a decompression bomb. As a compression bomb works by overloading the system when it is unpacked, the Avast scan does not unpack these files simply as a precaution.
If there was something malicious embedded inside the compressed files, it will be identified if/when the file is unpacked by another program (as the File Shield will scan any compressed file at the time that it is unpacked). Therefore, it is safe to ignore these "unable to scan" results.
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I have also come across the same issue regarding files that could not be scanned. I stopped worrying about it but wondered if it was worthwhile deleting them or placing them in quarantine and how to go about doing it. I have assumed they were proprietary to Apple as I do not download anything; computer is used for reading news, emails and some shopping on amazon. Other than that, simple word processing of reports and storing photos.
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Files that can't be scanned are just that, not an indication that they are infected/harmful, deletion or moving them to the virus chest could have an adverse impact.
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I would not advise taking action on them unless you can post the paths here so it can be verified before taking action. In most cases this is nothing to worry about as you do not have permissions to access some files in the system
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Thanks DavidR and Mac. Greatly appreciated.
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You're welcome.