[FIXED] [VBS: Malware Gen] False positives Vir. def: 170221-1 22.2.2017 0:08:41

[catinahat]

On the positive side I've just got the new VPS and my latest quick scan is clean.

Thanks for confirmation!

You're welcome. Thanks for releasing the fix. For some reason my reply to another of your comments didn't go through. I would like to suggest that Avast test it's VPS definitions before releasing them. I understand that you cannot prevent all FPs with all the software out there, however many of my detections in my quick scan were for windows files & other OS files. I find this inexcusable. I hope this incident will cause you to change your processes.

[HonzaZ]

I really dont know what to do here. I'm worried about putting things in the chest if theyre important files which a lot of them seem to be.
But it doesnt seem to want to let me do nothing and it's been like this for a few hours.

Clicking "Close" doesn't work?

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After you restore items from the virus chest do they continue to show up in there?

I tried to restore all 3k-ish files and used overwrite all, windows 10 asked me if i wanted to let avast makes changes to my system, i said yes.

All files are still showing as being in virus chest.

I am updated to 170222, did a full system scan, no issues were found.

Except now when I try to open certain programs i get an error. I double click on an .exe and get Windows cannot find 'C:\blahblahblah\thing.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again. Wonder how unstable my OS is now that avast nuked a massive number of my files...

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A false detection of windows files? Come on now... This was a horrible mistake.

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Avast! By the time I got a detection I ran a boot time scan! After the scan it shows that I have over 4878 FILES INFECTED!!!

4673 OF THOSE FILES ARE PERSONAL PICTURES FROM LAST YEAR WHICH I HAVE NO BACK UP!!!

IT GOT PERMANENTLY DELETED BY AVAST!!!

Sounds like my situation.

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I managed to manually restore a whole bunch of files that were sent to my chest, then did a system restore. However, I ran a boot-time scan prior to finding out about this false positive. I hit ESC and cancelled the scan pretty early because I noticed something was obviously wrong with all the infected files it was finding (it discovered so many false positives that it was ineligible to read what was happening on my screen); but not before it showed me the 1000+ files it labeled as "infected". I didn't do anything when the files were shown to be infected and I just let computer restart itself. I was wondering whether or not the scan automatically deleted those files or just left them how they were when I hit ESC?

[Eddy]

Well, there is a very good reason why someone came up with the idea to backup things a long time ago.

And it is not just for cases like this.
Hard-drive can fail, house (and system) can burn down, you can make a mistake and delete files etc.

One could try Photorec and see if the files can be recovered if there is no backup.

[Caso]

Well, there is a very good reason why someone came up with the idea to backup things a long time ago.

 Photorec and see if the files can be recovered if there is no backup.

Still won't save you from severe OS problems or a full image re-install.

[REDACTED]

Well, there is a very good reason why someone came up with the idea to backup things a long time ago.

And it is not just for cases like this.
Hard-drive can fail, house (and system) can burn down, you can make a mistake and delete files etc.

One could try Photorec and see if the files can be recovered if there is no backup.

I tried to do a system restore. It failed due to a registry error. Not sure if due to the thousands of files avast deleted or not.

[REDACTED]

What an absolute mess!  Change control processes were described by IBM in the 1970's. Perhaps you guys at avast need to go back in time and learn some basic disciplines. And better you treat your customers with a considerable amount of greater respect rather than making inane comments about back-ups. 

[Caso]

Well, there is a very good reason why someone came up with the idea to backup things a long time ago.

And it is not just for cases like this.
Hard-drive can fail, house (and system) can burn down, you can make a mistake and delete files etc.

One could try Photorec and see if the files can be recovered if there is no backup.

I tried to do a system restore. It failed due to a registry error. Not sure if due to the thousands of files avast deleted or not.

AVAST sucks when it comes to system restores. Last time i had to uninstall Avast and then restore. You may want to try that.

[zombparadox]

I have updated Avast, rebooted, and no longer have the problem!  Avast with Chrome on Win 10...

the problem only just appeared today (after a laptop shutdown and reboot) but is fixed now.

What WAS the problem exactly?

[_George_]

I have updated Avast, rebooted, and no longer have the problem!  Avast with Chrome on Win 10...

the problem only just appeared today (after a laptop shutdown and reboot) but is fixed now.

What WAS the problem exactly?

False positive

[REDACTED]

Good idea, this will become good feelings!

No more false positives don't you?