Persistent threat alerts. "Do not show this message again" doesn't work.

[vertigoelectric]

A number of times throughout each day I get an Avast notification titled EXPLOIT BLOCKED.   I've clicked "Do not show this message again" but it will just show it again later anyway.  I've checked the network shield (the category under which the notification is operated) and I have made sure "Show warning messages" is unchecked.

Anyway, my question here is not regarding the level of the threat, but rather how to get Avast to stop telling me whenever it blocks it.  It gets quite annoying, especially when I am playing a game on a live broadcast.

I am using:

avast! Free Antivirus
Program version: 5.0.594

I also apologize if this has already been asked in the forum.  I did not see any related threads.

As a side note, I'll tell you more about the threat it says it's blocking.  It says that the object is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yy/tcp, where x is my public IP address and y is a port number (not the same every time).  It reports the "Infection" as being a DCOM Exploit, and it tells me that the threat was detected and blocked.

Perhaps this information can make it easier to help me.

Thanks in advance.

[SafeSurf]

I have made sure "Show warning messages" is unchecked.

Enable this and put the check back in the box that says, "Show warning messages" as this is giving you an alert for a reason to provide you security.

Have you changed any other settings from their default settings?

What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit?
What other security software do you have on the machine - current and previous, including firewall (FW)?

Are you going to the same site online when you keep getting this message?  What browser are you using?  Are you getting the same message if you use a different browser?

Welcome to the forum. 

[vertigoelectric]

I'm using Windows XP 32 bit.
I don't have any security software installed on the machine.  I am, though, behind a router.
My current activity doesn't seem to have any effect as to whether the alert appears or not.  Sometimes I'm just playing a game on an emulator.  Sometimes I'm browsing the web.  Other times I'm not doing anything.  I can be in another room and if I leave my sound on I'll randomly hear the "DING DING DING!  A threat has been detected" voice.

I don't want the alerts to appear.  They're telling me that it has blocked something... that it's just doing its job.  It doesn't need to tell me that every time.  There are two acceptable options, in my opinion.  1) Suppress the alerts so that it blocks the threat silently, or 2) prevent the threats from occurring in the first place so that avast has no reason to alert me.  I am fine with either one.

EDIT:  As soon as I posted this message, I received another alert.  This is a slightly different one that I now remember I also get from time to time, but not as often as the DCOM.  This time the "Infection" is listed as an LSASS Exploit (SXP).  I'm not sure what this means.  The only two actions that I performed at the time that this popped up was that I submitted this post and quickly restored a minimized skype conversation window.  I don't believe either of them are related to the issue, but I threw the info in there in case it helps anything.  As I said before, these alerts seem to pop up at random, regardless of what I'm doing (or not doing) at the time.

...and thank you.

[SafeSurf]

Have you run an Avast Full scan as well as an Avast Boot-time scan?  Did they come up clean?

If you don't have MBAM on your machine, please install and run this:

Check your computer for malware with Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (MBAM).
·   Download free http://www.malwarebytes.org/ for an on-demand scanner.
·   Double Click mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
·   After install, click update so you have latest database before scanning.
·   Under Settings:
o   General: Automatically Save File After Scan Completes is checked off
o   Scanner Settings:  Check all boxes
o   Updater: Download and install update if available is checked off
·   Once the program has loaded, select "Perform FULL Scan", then click Scan.
·   The scan may take some time to finish, so please be patient.
·   When the disinfection scan is complete, a log will appear in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart. (See Extra Note).
·   Click the “remove selected” button to quarantine anything found.  You will find the infection details under the Quarantine tab.
·   The log is automatically saved by MBAM and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
·   Copy & Paste the entire report in your next reply.

If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be presented with 1 of 2 prompts -- Click OK to either and let MBAM proceed with the disinfection process; If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately.


 

[vertigoelectric]

Well, I used to run a full scan each night before bedtime.  Haven't quite as much lately... because it never finds anything.  Sometimes it says "some files could not be scanned".  I shrug it off as no big deal.  I don't really have any problems that I've noticed.

I had a major virus attack weeks ago.  It was Madang.C and it infected every exe file on all 4 of my internal hard drives.  I used Rollback to recover my system and Avast to wipe out the virus on the other 3 drives.  That's the reason I got avast, actually.  At that time, I used MBAM to try to fix the problem but MBAM didn't even find any problems... avast did.  I haven't run MBAM since I wiped out the virus with avast because I haven't felt any need to.

If you think that these DCOM and LSASS exploits that the alerts are showing me are a big enough threat for me to spend a lot of extra time and effort to look into, then perhaps I will... but truly all I'd really like is to suppress the nagging alerts unless there is a threat that avast is UNABLE to block or prevent.

(if you don't mind me asking this side note, i'm curious about something.  long ago my wife's best friend's husband put avast on her laptop.  the interface is much different than mine, and hers has a male voice while mine has a female voice.  as far as i know, they're both avast free.  why is this?)

[SafeSurf]

Given the additional information re: recent malware you had, yes, you do need to do the following:

Update your Avast definitions.  If you have to now, force a manual update.
Do an Avast Full Scan.
Do an Avast Boot-time scan.
Update MBAM, then run a FULL scan > post your results with a copy and paste.

We need to be sure you are not dealing with malware.  In the meantime, enable that box I mentioned in my first post.  It may be a pain to deal with, but it's there for a reason and Avast is telling you something is wrong.

The reason for the difference in the male voice (version 4.0) and female voice (version 5.0) is that you have a newer version.  Version 4.0 will no longer be supported sometime after the end of the year, so that person should think about installing the new version 5.0.594.