Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: eco23 on April 12, 2011, 12:09:56 AM
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When I saw the Avast freaking out, I ran a boot scan out of fear that my PC was infected. Now it moved a TON of false positive files to my virus chest, what can I do? There's not a restore option that I see. Help please!?
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When I saw the Avast freaking out, I ran a boot scan out of fear that my PC was infected. Now it moved a TON of false positive files to my virus chest, what can I do? There's not a restore option that I see. Help please!?
Just out of curiosity, are the false positives anything other than temp internet files? That is all I received and the latest update v6.0.1000 Definition 110411-2 fixed my problem and I haven't needed to restore anything.
If you choose to restore, I believe that you can right click the name of the file in question and choose to delete, restore, etc.
Hope this helps!
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Not very fun stuff.
Seems to have affected html and javascript files.
Go to virus chest and right click on each one then select restore.
You can also push the Ctrl key to make multiple selections.
Be very careful of what you restore. Most of my false positives were simply temporary internet files.
I only had one program file that was sent to the chest.
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I did the same thing.... I eventually aborted when I figured that there was no way that all of these files were infected, and came here to confirm that there is some sort of fluke with the last update or so.
Anyway, as mentioned, you can restore by right clicking the file and choosing "restore."
Cheers.
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They are HTML: Script-inf files. I had just run a full scan last night and hadn't been on the PC since then. I don't see any options when I right click on them, at least not in the scan results page. In the virus vault, there is a repair option, but not restore.
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Okay, I found the restore option in the virus chest. I'm gonna be clicking it all night! They better fire the guy who made this update...I am furious! It's one thing for a free version, I paid good money for this program.
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https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false-positive-issue-with-virus-defs-110411-1/
According to VLK the definitions only affected websites nothing more nothing less.
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Sorry, I read too fast and missed the hold control instruction.
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So you're saying the the ton of files it calls viruses... all the HTML:Script-inf files are actual viruses? That seems impossible. I barely use this computer and it has run boot scans and full scans very recently, as in since the last time I used the PC. All this started during the time Avast had it's little freak out. Sorry if I don't understand the point you're making.
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I ran a virus scan (133 files found) and a bootscan (2,943 files found) and moved them all to the virus chest before I realized this whole thing was a false positive. These files are all HTML.
How can I restore all these files w/o clicking on each one?
Do I have to restore them? If they are temp files as suggested above, can they just be deleted?
This whole thing completely freaked me out. I have run scans w/Avast for years and never found a single infection. I just about had a heart attack when it started finding all this stuff.
Anybody know what to do?
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I updated to version 6 finally and I must add I am very dissapointed.
I just spend 2 hours on things that were false positives:
After updating Avast would block codes from ym email when I opened them, things there were not virusses but from msn messenger which communicates with hotmail.
After that I tried looking things up online on this forum and it would block things.
I later found out it was all java coding that was blocked.
So I decided to do a scan and was horrified that after 10 minutes it had removed 3000 files all from the help folder of my CS3 Flash.
The help files in question are to assist you with coding actionscript as part of the help file.
Then I became suspicious and ran another scanner: Malwarebytes and Avast would block things that the program was scanning, amongst them:
helpfiles int he .js format of all my video games such as Sims Medieval, Dragon age 2, Dragon age 1 and others from my other Adobe products like from Dreamweaver. All of the same .js format.
The program Malwarebytes came out clean however and so I decided to scan with Combofix because if there was anything going on that was nasty then Combofix could find it. It came out clean and the program reboots to make a log, suddenly Avast pops in again and says it might be a suspicious program and if I wanted to run it yes/no/sand box it which was insane.
I was tempted to turn back to version 5 at that point and decided to try and see if maybe it needed an update or anything because the whole problem started when my father called me and told me his avast wouldnt update to 6 (so I tried to do it myself to see if it happened to me as well). There were no updates it said but ever since then everything ran smooth and stable again, no longer do javascript commands get blocked in my email etc.
Then I read here that there was a version that saw all javascript files as false positives and I was enraged by it. Thank god I didn't move all 3000 files and only had to restore half of them.
What angers me the most is that right after updating from 5->6 Avast says it cannot update more and then goes on a shooting rampage against all that is java etc.
I was worried I had to reinstall Windows or something as result of an infection. Instead I wasted 2 hours on scanning when nothing was wrong.
For anyone who wants to restore:
1. beware you do not restore anything real virus.
2. The chest uses basic commands that Windows uses like: hold ctrl+click allows you to select multiples and if you click the top and shift click the bottom of the list you then select the whole pack in between as well. If you have selected the whole list with shift+click you can use ctrl+click to pick out ones that do not have to be selected.
Come on people you know this, it works with selecting files/maps/anything in Windows
On apple shift=command
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I ran a virus scan (133 files found) and a bootscan (2,943 files found) and moved them all to the virus chest before I realized this whole thing was a false positive. These files are all HTML.
How can I restore all these files w/o clicking on each one?
Do I have to restore them? If they are temp files as suggested above, can they just be deleted?
This whole thing completely freaked me out. I have run scans w/Avast for years and never found a single infection. I just about had a heart attack when it started finding all this stuff.
Anybody know what to do?
IF you want to restore multiple files, hold down control or shift while selecting them.
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Should I just restore all the results from today, and then immediately run another boot scan now that the program is repaired to be safe?
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and then what? avast automatically ran boot scan and i chose to delete all the infected files.... my system has become compromised?
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I'd like to know if there is anything we can do about deleted files please. I have mine set to delete (not move to chest). I figure if its infected I dont want it, & if its an important file thats infected then I still dont want it!
So from what I can tell its .htm files & .js files, any others?
Its clobbered me for anything by Electronic Arts, World of Warcraft, Google Sketchup, & Nvidia. & a whole bunch of other stuff but it was too fast to read.
I was running a boot-time scan when I realised it was an error & stopped it, but I have lost over 10,000 files.
So is there anything I can do about deleted files?
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i saw avast deleting file from windvd2010 and other directories... :'(
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What a mess. Once I've restored the files, the entry still stays in the chest. There are so many!
What do I do after they have been restored? Do I just leave all those entries in the chest?
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I assume a staff member will occasionally check these threads? It seems we're all having the same problem and I haven't heard an actual solution.
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I'm not a staff member, but a user like you, with a couple of answers at least.
Once restored, a copy is kept in the chest in case you make a mistake with the file or the restore fails somehow. Once you confirm that it has worked correctly, said files can be deleted from the chest.
Delete is not the best idea, as may be obvious now. Unfortunately it can take a mistake for these things to become truly apparent to everyone...AFAIK there are ways to recover previously deleted files, but I would not be the one to ask on this subject.
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I assume a staff member will occasionally check these threads? It seems we're all having the same problem and I haven't heard an actual solution.
an "actual solution" is to upgrade to 110411-2, however the deleted files are gone.....
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I'm not a staff member, but a user like you, with a couple of answers at least.
Once restored, a copy is kept in the chest in case you make a mistake with the file or the restore fails somehow. Once you confirm that it has worked correctly, said files can be deleted from the chest.
Delete is not the best idea, as may be obvious now. Unfortunately it can take a mistake for these things to become truly apparent to everyone...AFAIK there are ways to recover previously deleted files, but I would not be the one to ask on this subject.
delete is not the best idea? you should tell us a few hours ago dude....
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I assume a staff member will occasionally check these threads? It seems we're all having the same problem and I haven't heard an actual solution.
an "actual solution" is to upgrade to 110411-2, however the deleted files are gone.....
I have that version. So, in my situation everything was moved to the chest and not deleted...so I just restore all the items from today's scan, then run another boot scan to be safe?
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Ok, I was able to control-click multiple files and restore them all. Quite laboriously, I must say.
I have read in some other threads that the entries will stay in the chest unless you delete them after restoring, which I don't want to do. I'm going to leave 'em in there just in case.
I hope someone will help the people who deleted files (glad I chose to move to chest instead). I think this whole incident deserves a sticky post so people will know what to do.
I feel like taking a chill pill and lying down now :o
(And I still love Avast, just don't do this again!)
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You can also shift-click (start and end) or use select all (Ctrl + A - but watch out for stuff you had in there previously if applicable...)
delete is not the best idea? you should tell us a few hours ago dude....
Well, I personally have been saying that since I began on this forum, as have others...but that is not the point.
My point was that this should be a lesson to everyone, that deletion shouldn't be a default reaction, since things can, and ultimately do, go wrong.
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Yep, I'll be moving to chest from now on >:(
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I'm not a staff member, but a user like you, with a couple of answers at least.
Once restored, a copy is kept in the chest in case you make a mistake with the file or the restore fails somehow. Once you confirm that it has worked correctly, said files can be deleted from the chest.
Delete is not the best idea, as may be obvious now. Unfortunately it can take a mistake for these things to become truly apparent to everyone...AFAIK there are ways to recover previously deleted files, but I would not be the one to ask on this subject.
delete is not the best idea? you should tell us a few hours ago dude....
hey, you're getting obvious FPs after a bad VPS update, then you choose to delete files... (while others stupidly ran full/boot time scans)... and you're coming here to insult everyone? now you chill out okay ?
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ok got it! and you are right (I should be wiser there) delete isnt the first option but what if we stupidly deleted files during the boot scan ? is there a way to restore these files? with a system restore maybe? cause the computer lost its sound after that.. :(
thanks for helping in advance
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System Restore wont do it, I already tried.
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sigh! thanks Ssscrudddy
lets hope the avast team will come up with some idea
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ok got it! and you are right (I should be wiser there) delete isnt the first option but what if we stupidly deleted files during the boot scan ? is there a way to restore these files? with a system restore maybe? cause the computer lost its sound after that.. :(
thanks for helping in advance
the problem with system restore is that you may restore the bad VPS...
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how about restoring the system in safe mode, then uninstall the bad VPS (remove avast still in safe mode) and then restart and reinstall avast from scratch? would that help maybe?
sorry if I sound stupid with those questions I don't know much about computers, just the basics so I do silly things and ask stupid questions :(
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the problem with system restore is that you may restore the bad VPS...
well it didnt, I checked for that also. It left it at 110411-2
Had to laugh at this tho
hey, you're getting obvious FPs after a bad VPS update, then you choose to delete files... (while others stupidly ran full/boot time scans)... and you're coming here to insult everyone? now you chill out okay ?
So you're now insulting every one who ran the boot time scan, yet having a go at other peeps for being insulting!!!
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feeling hopeless here, I may have ruined my friends pc ???
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hey, you're getting obvious FPs after a bad VPS update, then you choose to delete files... (while others stupidly ran full/boot time scans)... and you're coming here to insult everyone? now you chill out okay ?
Logos, I think you're being a bit harsh here. Not everyone is familiar with false positives or what to do when Avast starts finding crazy amounts of files. For me, this was a first.
I was prompted by Avast to do a bootscan after I did a quick scan and it found "133 infected files". I thought maybe I should check here first and now I wish I had, but in the heat of the moment one tends to panic a bit.
I have really learned a lot from this incident, and I think it could be treated as a 'teachable moment' instead of yelling at people. Just my two cents ::)
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I thought maybe I should check here first and now I wish I had, but in the heat of the moment one tends to panic a bit.
Malta I tried to check here before deleting but the site was down for more than an hour :( so being trustful to avast I deleted the files, my first false alerts ever too
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paraxeno, I tried to get here too, and the site was taking forever to load which increased my paranoia about a possible infection. That's why I ran the quick scan and etc.
I guess we've all learned something today. They say experience is the best teacher, but ARRGGH...I coulda done w/o this one!
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paraxeno, I tried to get here too, and the site was taking forever to load which increased my paranoia about a possible infection. That's why I ran the quick scan and etc.
I guess we've all learned something today. They say experience is the best teacher, but ARRGGH...I coulda done w/o this one!
exactly the same here malta, and I was helping a friend with his computer which makes me feel double responsible :'( if we have deleted important files that caused the sound to disappear, worse thing is he is a musician using his computer for work and what is a musician with no sound?
we certainly did learn a whole bunch today !!!
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I thought maybe I should check here first and now I wish I had, but in the heat of the moment one tends to panic a bit.
Malta I tried to check here before deleting but the site was down for more than an hour :( so being trustful to avast I deleted the files, my first false alerts ever too
Not the first false positive:
https://blog.avast.com/2009/12/10/bad-definition-update
They are corrected quickly:
https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false-positive-issue-with-virus-defs-110411-1
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Guys, I had the same problem with today's update. At first, all sites were "infected". Then I started a full system scan in Avast! which found around 12 "infected" files. I forgot what exactly it was, but I deleted all of them. Then Avast! asked me if I want to run bootscan but I said no. So, is something wrong if I deleted those files? I'm scared now. :(
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Had the same problem. Initial system scan found a bunch of high risk trojans and whatnot, moved them to the chest and advised me to do a boot scan. Did the boot scan and it found something like 10,000 infected files, also moved to chest. Logged back on and got the 110411-2 update, did a system scan and found zero infections. In my chest there are nowhere near 10,000 files but there are a lot.
I want to restore them as people in this thread have been doing but I am afraid some may actually be threats.
Several have [Trj] assuming for Trojan, [Heur] no idea, and [Expl] assuming exploit, tags after their entries.
Are the ones with the tagged REAL Trojans, etc. or were they false positives from the bad 110411-1 update?
Should I keep the tagged files in the chest and restore the rest?
Thanks all.
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1st time its happened to me as well I missed that other one, I too went with what Avast was saying & the forum was down. I dont think we need to take too much notice of the likes of Logos, he obviously a big scary man cuz he can swear at peeps in his own language... ooer I'm shaking in my little pink booties ::)
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I'm not sure how this could affect the sound, but take a look in device manager and see if the are yellow triangles next to the sound section.
Thinking on recovering some deleted files, would recuva work? I haven't ever used it so I can't comment on that...maybe worth a shot though
http://www.piriform.com/recuva/builds (Use the zip download, no need to install then)
As the phrase goes, hindsight is 20/20...
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Kenny it was my first false positive incident, so how should I know this was the case? and since the site was down to see what was going on in here I chose the panic way to react, by deleting and not putting the infected files in the chest :(
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I'm not sure how this could affect the sound, but take a look in device manager and see if the are yellow triangles next to the sound section.
Thinking on recovering some deleted files, would recuva work? I haven't ever used it so I can't comment on that...maybe worth a shot though
http://www.piriform.com/recuva/builds (Use the zip download, no need to install then)
As the phrase goes, hindsight is 20/20...
thanks Scott will try that tomorrow first thing in the morning its 3.13 am here in Greece but still here trying to find a solution since I feel responsible in case my friends computer has a serious problem now
thanks a lot though I just wish its something I can handle
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YoKenny thanks for the info. This was a first false positive for me, I must have missed the one in Dec '09...maybe because they are fixed so quickly!
At least now I will know what to do if it ever happens again. Namely, calm down, research it here, and proceed with caution.
Also, never delete! Never surrender! ;D
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Kenny it was my first false positive incident, so how should I know this was the case? and since the site was down to see what was going on in here I chose the panic way to react, by deleting and not putting the infected files in the chest :(
If you choose to panic then maybe you need Valium. ;)
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@paraxeno
If you choose the system restore option you can perform a manual VPS update by going here. http://www.avast.com/download-update
I already checked to see if it was the most recent.
Download it then save it to a usb stick. You can then update the definitions offline if you have any concerns.
I think I read another post where restore didn't work. Don't know the details of what didn't work though.
You could also ask your friend if he has recovery cd or a system image that can be used to repair the problems.
If I have repeated anything posted by others, my apologies. Having a hard time following this.
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Kenny it was my first false positive incident, so how should I know this was the case? and since the site was down to see what was going on in here I chose the panic way to react, by deleting and not putting the infected files in the chest :(
If you choose to panic then maybe you need Valium. ;)
lol pharmacies closed at this hour of night in our country ;)
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@paraxeno
If you choose the system restore option you can perform a manual VPS update by going here. http://www.avast.com/download-update
I already checked to see if it was the most recent.
Download it then save it to a usb stick. You can then update the definitions offline if you have any concerns. I think I read another post where restore didn't work. Don't know the details of what didn't work though.
You could also ask your friend if he has recovery cd or a system image that can be used to repair the problems.
If I have repeated anything posted by others, my apologies. Having a hard time following this.
will try all these too thanks a million, something will work eventually
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Guys, I had the same problem with today's update. At first, all sites were "infected". Then I started a full system scan in Avast! which found around 12 "infected" files. I forgot what exactly it was, but I deleted all of them. Then Avast! asked me if I want to run bootscan but I said no. So, is something wrong if I deleted those files? I'm scared now. :(
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Falco it probably depends on how your computer runs after the deletion, (mine lost the sound) read the links and instruction people gave us on previous posts, to see if any of these cases apply to you and follow instructions found on the blog here https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false-positive-issue-with-virus-defs-110411-1/ (https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false-positive-issue-with-virus-defs-110411-1/)
or just be a little more patient till we get more detailed instructions if any give for cases that files were deleted
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Today 80% of all internet sites were blocked.
Did a virus scan and it came back with 3200 false positives every file that had anything to do with java script was flagged for quarantine remove or allow, I allowed them all obviously.
Before today I have never had a problem with Avast.
Avast asked to do a boot scan of course I chose not to.
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lucky you Rad, I wish I have been that wise :-\
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lucky you Rad, I wish I have been that wise :-\
Newbies have a lot to learn! ;)
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Having also been through the mill with this little swerve-ball from Avast, I actually believe it's either a huge mistake inadvertently written into an update because the 'every website has malware' problem definitely occurred immediately after an Avast auto update earlier today.
And it has now completely gone away after the new update I have just received minutes ago.
Or, and this is where we enter the realms of conspiracy theory, it's a marketing campaign!
Didn't anyone notice that all the dark red malware detected windows that popped-up only had one link that took you straight over to the "benefits of upgrading page" on the Avast website ??
I wonder how many panic purchased into the pro version during all of this?
Yes Avast is our friend and they provide possibly the best free access virus checker available, but times are hard.
OK I did admit it was only a theory, but I discovered Avast some years ago after going through the hell imposed on free users by AVG when their server was almost impenetrable and no one could update their virus patterns for weeks on end. Strangely the paid for users had no problems at all and AVG simply did not comment on the problem with any real effect.
I pray this is a glitch and Avast doesn't go down the road of 'persuading' potential paying customers by using scare tactics like this.
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Newbies have a lot to learn! ;)
yeap Kenny that is the good side of it, that we are able to learn :D (if only it was my pc I wouldnt mind that much) ah well what is done is done, thanks to all for all the help efforts and enjoy the rest of your day or night
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Having also been through the mill with this little swerve-ball from Avast, I actually believe it's either a huge mistake inadvertently written into an update because the 'every website has malware' problem definitely occurred immediately after an Avast auto update earlier today.
And it has now completely gone away after the new update I have just received minutes ago.
Or, and this is where we enter the realms of conspiracy theory, it's a marketing campaign!
Didn't anyone notice that all the dark red malware detected windows that popped-up only had one link that took you straight over to the "benefits of upgrading page" on the Avast website ??
I wonder how many panic purchased into the pro version during all of this?
Yes Avast is our friend and they provide possibly the best free access virus checker available, but times are hard.
OK I did admit it was only a theory, but I discovered Avast some years ago after going through the hell imposed on free users by AVG when their server was almost impenetrable and no one could update their virus patterns for weeks on end. Strangely the paid for users had no problems at all and AVG simply did not comment on the problem with any real effect.
I pray this is a glitch and Avast doesn't go down the road of 'persuading' potential paying customers by using scare tactics like this.
No conspiracy theory. Just a mistake that was corrected within an hour after discovering. As you can see it has caused more negative publicity than it would be worth in having an unknown amount of people purchase a Pro or AIS product. Where would the benefit be in this? I don't really need an answer to that question because there is no benefit.
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Falco it probably depends on how your computer runs after the deletion, (mine lost the sound) read the links and instruction people gave us on previous posts, to see if any of these cases apply to you and follow instructions found on the blog here https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false-positive-issue-with-virus-defs-110411-1/ (https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false-positive-issue-with-virus-defs-110411-1/)
or just be a little more patient till we get more detailed instructions if any give for cases that files were deleted
I didn't notice anything unusual.
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I wonder how many panic purchased into the pro version during all of this?
avast will NEVER do this. The detection level is the same on the free and the paid version.
Strangely the paid for users had no problems at all and AVG simply did not comment on the problem with any real effect.
Otherwise AVG and Avira, avast releases the same servers for both paid and free versions. The default update time of the free version is, otherwise, higher than the paid versions.
I pray this is a glitch and Avast doesn't go down the road of 'persuading' potential paying customers by using scare tactics like this.
A complete false theory or FUD.
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Having also been through the mill with this little swerve-ball from Avast, I actually believe it's either a huge mistake inadvertently written into an update because the 'every website has malware' problem definitely occurred immediately after an Avast auto update earlier today.
And it has now completely gone away after the new update I have just received minutes ago.
Or, and this is where we enter the realms of conspiracy theory, it's a marketing campaign!
Didn't anyone notice that all the dark red malware detected windows that popped-up only had one link that took you straight over to the "benefits of upgrading page" on the Avast website ??
I wonder how many panic purchased into the pro version during all of this?
Yes Avast is our friend and they provide possibly the best free access virus checker available, but times are hard.
OK I did admit it was only a theory, but I discovered Avast some years ago after going through the hell imposed on free users by AVG when their server was almost impenetrable and no one could update their virus patterns for weeks on end. Strangely the paid for users had no problems at all and AVG simply did not comment on the problem with any real effect.
I pray this is a glitch and Avast doesn't go down the road of 'persuading' potential paying customers by using scare tactics like this.
;D ;D keep praying :D