Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: Southern Man on August 25, 2006, 09:31:27 PM
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hi i thought i'd have a backup AV on demand (no guard no autostartup) custom install and downloaded antivir,when i tried to download updates AVAST popped up message with with "Win32:Small-1700 virus/worm detected",wow surprise,i moved it to chest then decided to delete it altogether and un-install antivir!.
Now was this a false positive?,i downloded it from major geeks from antivir original site link?
southern man
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This was posted before...
This is an Antivir update file that does not have 'encrypted' signatures. The detection by avast is correct. Antivir (like Panda antivirus) is doing that now... awful...
Well, you could add the file to the avast Exclusion Lists.
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This is an Antivir update file that does not have 'encrypted' signatures. The detection by avast is correct. Antivir (like Panda antivirus) is doing that now... awful...
What exactly is meant by 'encrypted' signatures, as I also use Antivir for a 'second opinion' on virus scans. Also, by saying that the detection by Avast is correct, is that to say that there is viral code in the .dll file used by Antivir? If so, should I bin it?
Lap.
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This means the signatures are password protected. Doing this prevents AV scanners from recognizing and alerting you to the presence of a virus.
You don't need to worry about the AntiVir signatures because they are only a fragment of the real virus - enough to identify by comparison the actual virus if it's present on your computer. But this does make using AntiVir as a backup scanner a lot less convenient than it once was.
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Sorry it doesn't mean the file is password protected, a file can be password protected without being encrypted and files can be encrypted without needing a password. Even without a password all you will see in an encrypted file is totally unrecognisable code.
Encryption (applying a code to the file data, which requires another code to decrypt it) stops prying eyes looking at things they shouldn't and is used for secure communication, https sites, like on-line banking, etc.
Virus programs detect viruses by their signatures so a file containing signatures which aren't encrypted can be scanned by another antivirus and once it finds a virus signature it will alert the user. Files that contain signatures, which are encrypted can't be scanned by other AVs so shouldn't alert you.
Antivir is a resident AV and unless you go to extreme length to stop it being resident then it can clash with avast and possibly lock-up your system. It isn't advisable to have two resident AVs on the same system even if one is disabled.