Does Avast protect me from Wannacry?

[REDACTED]

I had to turn off automatic updates on my WIN10 because every single time it would cause a problem, e.g. "your hard drive is corrupted", or it indicates wireless is working and it's not.  A myriad of problems.  So, I turned it off.  So, my computer may not be updated for wannacry.  I ran the monthly virus scan from MS today and nothing.  I have defender turned on automatic now.  And I use Avast.  But on Avast they don't have anything posted and nothing on the forum  So, I don't know if it protects me or not.  Talking to Avast is like breaking into the pentagon.

[Asyn]

Yes, see: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=202339.0

[REDACTED]

Funny thing, on each and every antivirus forum we ask this question the answer is the same "Yeas, our antivirus will protect you against Wannacry", yet 100000 pc were infected...

[CraigB]

Funny thing, on each and every antivirus forum we ask this question the answer is the same "Yeas, our antivirus will protect you against Wannacry", yet 100000 pc were infected...

Well none can protect until it's been detected and measures put in place, the worrying part is that the ransomware will now be modified and released again to infect more systems and the circle goes round and round

[Pondus]

Funny thing, on each and every antivirus forum we ask this question the answer is the same "Yeas, our antivirus will protect you against Wannacry", yet 100000 pc were infected...

https://virustotal.com/en/file/09a46b3e1be080745a6d8d88d6b5bd351b1c7586ae0dc94d0c238ee36421cafa/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/24d004a104d4d54034dbcffc2a4b19a11f39008a575aa614ea04703480b1022c/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/2584e1521065e45ec3c17767c065429038fc6291c091097ea8b22c8a502c41dd/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/2ca2d550e603d74dedda03156023135b38da3630cb014e3d00b1263358c5f00d/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/4a468603fdcb7a2eb5770705898cf9ef37aade532a7964642ecd705a74794b79/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/b9c5d4339809e0ad9a00d4d3dd26fdf44a32819a54abf846bb9b560d81391c25/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/d8a9879a99ac7b12e63e6bcae7f965fbf1b63d892a8649ab1d6b08ce711f7127/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/ed01ebfbc9eb5bbea545af4d01bf5f1071661840480439c6e5babe8e080e41aa/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/f8812f1deb8001f3b7672b6fc85640ecb123bc2304b563728e6235ccbe782d85/analysis/




The above samples are the one listed in avast blog when it was posted
TrendMicro blog have more samples listed
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=52252.msg1394233#msg1394233

[Eddy]

John, it seems you don't understand/know things.

If you would have asked the question before that malware was known, all would have said no because we don't know that it exists.
Detection can only be added after the malware has been discovered and all anti-malware developers did add it really fast after the discovery.

Yes there over are 200.000 networks in +/- 150 countries that are infected.
The reason for that is that they did not applied the security fix that was released a month ago and/or that they are using a obsolete Windows version.

[Staticguy]

I had to turn off automatic updates on my WIN10 because every single time it would cause a problem, e.g. "your hard drive is corrupted", or it indicates wireless is working and it's not.  A myriad of problems.  So, I turned it off.  So, my computer may not be updated for wannacry.  I ran the monthly virus scan from MS today and nothing.  I have defender turned on automatic now.  And I use Avast.  But on Avast they don't have anything posted and nothing on the forum  So, I don't know if it protects me or not.  Talking to Avast is like breaking into the pentagon.

You mentioned it may cause a problem  e.g. your hard driver is corrupted. Wireless is working and it's not. Your computer ain't affected with wannacry. The way I see it, it has 2 different scenarios.

a) You bought your computer in a retail store where they accidentally installed a corrupted version of windows by contacting a 3rd party technician to upgrade your HDD to SD (at the request of customer when they bought it). Trust me, I had this experience last year from June-July 2016 and December-March 2017. Back then my laptop was Acer, I had to send my laptop to the retail store and they had to sent it to the computer manufacturer and I had an argument with the retail store and the manufacturer via phone of why my laptop was sent frequently. If your computer/laptop is Acer, I am afraid that you might have this problem, because especially Acer does this kind of things.

b) You haven't done any upgrades/updates to your wireless network card and to your computer via your computer manufacturer e.g. DELL, HP, Acer, and etc. DELL Support Assist, HP Support Assistant and etc. Update/upgrade your computer ONLY through your computer manufacturer.

[Be Secure]

In this case "BACKUP" is must.No Antivirus gives you 100% protection.
Use your common sense and patch the OS.

[REDACTED]

John, it seems you don't understand/know things.

Hi,

I do understand "things".

Somehow, I believed that Avast! would rely on a signature-less mechanism to detect such a threat (heuristics, behavior blocker, sandboxing, running the threat in a virtual machine, etc), rather than "adding detection" after....

Any antivirus company can add detection "after", when the threat is known.

[Asyn]

Any antivirus company can add detection "after", when the threat is known.

Behavior shield did in fact detect it before that. Cheers.

[Lisandro]

Funny thing, on each and every antivirus forum we ask this question the answer is the same "Yeas, our antivirus will protect you against Wannacry", yet 100000 pc were infected...

https://virustotal.com/en/file/09a46b3e1be080745a6d8d88d6b5bd351b1c7586ae0dc94d0c238ee36421cafa/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/24d004a104d4d54034dbcffc2a4b19a11f39008a575aa614ea04703480b1022c/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/2584e1521065e45ec3c17767c065429038fc6291c091097ea8b22c8a502c41dd/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/2ca2d550e603d74dedda03156023135b38da3630cb014e3d00b1263358c5f00d/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/4a468603fdcb7a2eb5770705898cf9ef37aade532a7964642ecd705a74794b79/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/b9c5d4339809e0ad9a00d4d3dd26fdf44a32819a54abf846bb9b560d81391c25/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/d8a9879a99ac7b12e63e6bcae7f965fbf1b63d892a8649ab1d6b08ce711f7127/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/ed01ebfbc9eb5bbea545af4d01bf5f1071661840480439c6e5babe8e080e41aa/analysis/
https://virustotal.com/en/file/f8812f1deb8001f3b7672b6fc85640ecb123bc2304b563728e6235ccbe782d85/analysis/




The above samples are the one listed in avast blog when it was posted
TrendMicro blog have more samples listed
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=52252.msg1394233#msg1394233

I'm not sure, but I think this is the virustotal limitation. They use only on demmand scanning (even with command line) and not the full potential of the apps.

[Pondus]

It is not a limitation, virustotal is not a antivirus program and never was intended to be

Read the FAQ on VT website

[Eddy]

VT doesn't use the full capacity of the av's and that can result to VT showing a av is not detecting something while it does.

If something is detected or not on a users system depends also on the settings the user has set.

John, what you clearly don't understand is that it is not possible to create a detection if the method the malware is using is not known.
If it was, diseases like aids, cholera etc would not be able to infect people.

[REDACTED]

If something is detected or not on a users system depends also on the settings the user has set.

... if the method the malware is using is not known.

What is "unknown " in a software encrypting all your files?
To you, seems a normal behavior???

[Eddy]

Encrypting files doesn't mean it is caused by malware and sure can be normal behavior.
e.g. when people encrypt their files for protection.

Packaging files with a compression algorithm is basically also encrypting them.