Last night I updated my avast to 2015.10.2.2218 - third time in six weeks the program has issued a new release.
This morning, when the full system scan had run overnight, it reported 30 instances of Win32:GenMaliciousA-RRK. All were on .pxc files (interim/temporary files created by slide show software ProShow Gold) created between 2006 and 2008, that have been resident on my computer builds since that time. All were on "data" (not program) drives. Curiously, 13 were on files on the D drive, and 17 were on files on the F drive, a mirror of the D drive.
Since these files have been on the computer for years, with no issues, and they're not executables - and a whole bunch of other circumstances that made me scrunch up my face - I uploaded two of the "bad" files to the
https://www.virustotal.com web site, a free site that purports to scan suspect files with tons of AV software.
The result for both files? 55 antivirus programs, all updated today or yesterday, found no infection. Avast, and Avast alone, found Win32:GenMaliciousA-RRK in them.
When I googled Win32:GenMaliciousA-RRK I found what looked like a disproportionate number of references to Avast. I found nothing, not Avast-centric, that explained what this purported rootkit is.
Any comment on this, including what actions I should take? My inclination is to do nothing with the "infected" files, but on the small chance that somehow my computer became infected (and then the question becomes "how?" as I am very careful in my computing, my clicks, my file opens, etc.), well, that would be a disaster. I image my C drive regularly, but the only protection my D drive has is the mirroring.
BTW,
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=168067.0 is a post from six weeks ago, where Avast suspiciously found malware on my computer, and I had to do a system restore - plus other concerns I had with the software at that time.
I don't want to be the patient who shops doctors until finding someone to tell me I'm healthy.
But I also don't want Avast to turn me into a computer hypochondriac when there's nothing to worry about.
