Avast makes copying over network impossible without intervention on target PC!

[Anacunga]

Situation: 2 PC with Windows XP; one with Avast 4.8 (source PC for copying) and the other with Avast 8.0 (target PC).

Now you want to copy a bunch of files from the source PC to the target PC: you are working on the source PC and the target PC has some folders shared for network access.

What happens if avast 4.8 does not find anything else to complain about, but avast 8.0 finds something declared as "malware", "virus" or else?

Btw: the copying/moving was done with teracopy – don't ask me what would have happened if copying by windows explorer!

Now what is happening is (seen from the source PC) that copying does not advance and is stuck ...

If you go to the target PC (that might be in the same room, in a room aside – or even in another building or where else) you see a red avast warning window (as setting there is "first action: ask") proposing to move the incriminated file directly to the chest ... and until this is answered, the entire copying is blocked and stuck.

The solution therefore is to stop avast protection totally on any target machine before copying anything over the local network – and additionally replace all avast 8.0 by avast 4.8 on XP – or what???

[Pondus]

What happens if avast 4.8 does not find anything else to complain about, but avast 8.0 finds something declared as "malware", "virus" or else?

avast 4.8 is obsolete.... lots of stuff it will not detect that avast 8 will detect


what is the message from avast?
you may attach a screenshot

[Anacunga]

The message itself is not the main problem here – the main problem here is that copying /moving over the network is stuck and needs manual intervention on target PC!

[Pondus]

The message itself is not the main problem here – the main problem here is that copying /moving over the network is stuck and needs manual intervention on target PC!

If we know what the message is we may be able to fix it with a update.... no can do before we know what it say   

so attach a screenshot of the avast warning pop-up

[redwolfe_98]

the main problem here is that copying/moving over the network is stuck and needs manual intervention on target PC!

the way i see it, you have two choices: either don't tranfer malware to the remote computer or else don't use the avast program to protect the remote computer against malware..

if you are wanting to transfer malware to the remote computer, my advice would be not to use the avast program to protect it against malware..

[Pondus]

the main problem here is that copying/moving over the network is stuck and needs manual intervention on target PC!

the way i see it, you have two choices: either don't tranfer malware to the remote computer or else don't use the avast program to protect the remote computer against malware..

if you are wanting to transfer malware to the remote computer, my advice would be not to use the avast program to protect it against malware..

or it is a  Win32:evo-gen [susp]  warning .... but unless they tell us, it is all guesswork   

[Anacunga]

the main problem here is that copying/moving over the network is stuck and needs manual intervention on target PC!

the way i see it, you have two choices: either don't tranfer malware to the remote computer or else don't use the avast program to protect the remote computer against malware..

if you are wanting to transfer malware to the remote computer, my advice would be not to use the avast program to protect it against malware..

or it is a  Win32:evo-gen [susp]  warning .... but unless they tell us, it is all guesswork   

  ... should that be a question??? ...  ... yep, it IS a Win32:Evo-gen [Susp] ...  ... and it only appears if you copy the file through network to that PC; if you make an on-demand-virus-scan, nothing else is reported: "no thread found"!

Btw: don't know whether I'll arrive to make that screenshot, as there are two files that are affected, and two "virus found" windows are open - and as long I do not close both of them, the windows explorer on that PC is totally blocked. I cannot access the shared folder with a third PC: the message is: that PC is no longer available on the network and you might not have the permission to access that pc as the network path was not found on the network.

I now wanted to open a pic-utility to save the screenshot. I tried that thrugh task manager (open new task), but as soon as I have to serch for the pic-utility, not only the taskmanager-open-dialogue-window is blocked, but even the task-manager itself is blocked - it even does not actualize the memory usage diagram.

So avast is just totally blocking not only the exploerer, but the PC as a whole.

And that's unacceptable!

... and we come to the next flaw: in the "virus found" dialogue, you offer (preselected) to submit the file to your lab for further analysis. I'd like to do that - but then you force me to either "move the file to chest", "block the file", or even "delete it" (immediately). I'm not gonna do that - I'll press "escape" or click to close the window without taking the proposed action (I'd like to submit it, but only if ignoring the false alarm!).

[Anacunga]

avast 4.8 is obsolete.... lots of stuff it will not detect that avast 8 will detect

yep - lots of false alarms are not detected - so 1:0 for avast 4.8 and against 8.0 ...

what is the message from avast?

"virus found: Win32:evo-gen [susp]"

Btw: it is an unpacked version 1.31.0 of Gammu from http://wammu.eu/ – affected are the two files gammu-smsd-monitor.exe and gammu-smsd.exe (moved with teracopy from XP with fully updated avast 4.8 to XP with fully updated avast 8.0) ... and be aware: along the unpacked version, also the zipped archive (with that stuff inside) is copied – and avast does not complain about the same files inside the archive!

you may attach a screenshot

I tried to make a screenshot with the avast warning - but it is not on the screenshot, only what was below/behind that warning is on that screenshot - and you just see everything blocked, including the task manager!

--- Edit 16.10.2013 – screenshot added ---

Be aware: the "avast outdated"-balloon has it's reason: I not only stopped avast for being able to copy the stuff, I also did not update virus database at that moment to be able to reproduce the flaw. Now (when adding the screenshot) the virus database was updated and is no longer outdated (and the flaw is no longer reproduceable).

Screenshot attachted: as mentioned the avast warning window is not visible even if in foreground (you can see that on the task ruler at the bottom of the screen: the selected window in foreground is the avast window) ...