This is just too much!

[jvidal]

Ok, I'm sick of avast, not only the false positives, this time is really serious. This has happened to me twice.

For some reason avast just goes crazy and starts deleting executables like there's no tomorrow!!!!

The first time, it deleted over 100 executables from my HD, mostly games & emulators and some other utilities. I noticed because my files disappeared without any kind of notification and over 100 .dat files appeared in the "c:\$AV_ASW" folder. Looking at the virus chest in the avast UI shows nothing! So, it decided to move hundreds of my files to the chest, not notifying me and, even worse, now there's no way of recovering them!!!
Fortunately, I keep backups.
Today, it happened again. I noticed it so I promptly rebooted my PC and only 40 files were deleted. it even deleted the winzip executable!

The first time this happened, i was playing a game with the fMSX MSX emulator and avast "decided" that fmsx.exe was a virus and just went nuts and started deleting other files FOR NO REASON, all clean files. I think it's related to that damn behavior shield.

The second time, I was opening a zip file that contained an exe of dubious origin. Avast detected "filerep: malware" and after I closed the warning a few times, it went crazy and started deleting my files.

This is A REALLY SERIOUS ISSUE AND SHOULD BE RESOLVED ASAP.

[Pondus]

This is A REALLY SERIOUS ISSUE AND SHOULD BE RESOLVED ASAP.

It may be difficult unless you provide samples for avast to check, alternative link to virustotal file scan

Also note that this forum has a special forum section for posting malware and false positive problems > Viruses and Worms

See sticky posts at top in that section for info

[jvidal]

This is not a matter of false positives or infected or clean files. The problem is that avast goes crazy and starts deleting files without ANY NOTIFICATION AT ALL. It doesn't matter which files it's deleting, that's not the issue. don't you get it???
The deleted files are moved to the chest, but if you go to the chest in the UI, it's empty. this is a HUMONGOUS BUG that needs fixing ASAP.
I repeat: ALL THE FILES DELETED ARE CLEAN. The same files have been there for ages and avast HAS NEVER EVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THEM. I've used them hundreds or times.
It's not a matter of wrong detections. it's something a lot more serious. I repeat: Avast goes crazy and starts randomly deleting executable files. There's something seriously wrong with the avast engine.

[Eddy]

Many emulators are detected as PUP.

avast doesn't randomly deletes files.
One (or more) conditions must be met before avast deletes a file.

[Pondus]

At this moment it seems you are the only one / first one to report this?

There is still some missing info so this may help avast team!

Submitting a support file using the Avast Support Tool  >>  https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB33#artTitle

[jvidal]

The thing is that avast starts deleting files, there's no detection. the deleted files are all clean files I use on a daily basis. There's no issue when I restore the files from the backup.
The first time, like i said, i was playing a game with the fMSX emulator and I noticed it started getting sluggish and avast froze (showed not responding in task manager, I believe it was that damn behavior shield). I also saw a lot of strange disk activity. finally, i had to hard reset my machine and noticed a lot of my files missing.
I had been using that same program for quite a while without any issues, until avast went nuts and started acting-up.
Avast NEVER showed a virus warning (and I have all my actions set to "ask" in case of virus/pup).
So, like I said, this is not a matter of wrong detections or false positives. There's a big bug in the avast engine.

[jvidal]

Many emulators are detected as PUP.

avast doesn't randomly deletes files.
One (or more) conditions must be met before avast deletes a file.

Yes, it does, It did it to my files. No detection, no warning, NOTHING, it just deleted the files.

[ApoC]

Hello jvidal,

I would like to apology for any inconveniences caused by Avast! in the first place. For further investigation of this issue, would You be so kind and send use these log files:
idpagentdetection.log
idpagent.log.*
secapi.log.*

located in C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\log ?

You can attach them to this topic, the files are encrypted so only Avast developers are able to read the content.

Thank You very much.

[jvidal]

only idpagent.log.* are available.
idpagentdetection.* do not exist and secapi.log.* are blocked.

[Eddy]

Disable avast self-defense and try to attach secapi.log again.

[bob3160]

[jvidal]

this is getting COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL, it happened again today.
I was installing a program called "balabolka" when a bogus virus detection popped up "filerep: malware" (BTW, who THE HELL determines the "Rep" of a file?). Then, while trying to report the false positive and closing the alert window, another one popped up, detecting something like "IDP.generic". after that, it all went to hell, avast deleted the winzip executable (the file I opened was inside a .zip file) and then started deleting random executables WITHOUT TELLING ME OR WARNING ME OR SAYING A VIRUS WAS FOUND OR ANYTHING!!!!!!!. The only way to stop this is to hard-reboot the PC via the reset button.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??? Avast has turned into malware itself, now it's safer to not have it installed!!!!!!!

[jvidal]

and here are the logs

[Eddy]

Thanks for the logs.
Now it is up to someone from avast to have a look at them.

On a note, don't forget to turn the avast self defense back on again.

[jvidal]

I uninstalled it. I'm gonna install it again in an attempt to fix this madness!!!

The victims this time were the winzip executable, gzdoom (a doom engine), pasofami (a japanese NES emulator, 2 files), msdos player (i486 version, an MSDOS emu) and maybe another one I can't detect right now, I have to check against my backups. the thing is that I use this files all the time and there's no problem with them, but when avast "loses it", it starts deleting them FOR NO REASON AND WITHOUT ANY KIND OF NOTIFICATION WHATSOEVER.