Author Topic: What "avast overseer" is?  (Read 119239 times)

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Offline drake127

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #15 on: December 06, 2017, 06:37:27 PM »
Yeah, probably the first time I read our EULA. :) It seems we have pretty good lawyers but I have no intention to hide behind them. If you come up with any constructive suggestions, I have some measure of control of the overseer's feature set. However, you need to be realistic and proportional. There is no point having Avast communicating and downloading VPS while blocking overseer.exe as there's virtually no benefit to either data traffic nor your privacy.

bob3160: It's a good idea, we'll discuss it but it will be difficult to decide what deserves to be mentioned and how to present it. In this case, it's quite difficult to reasonably describe feature that just fixes few quite technical corner cases. I expect that "improved stability" doesn't cut it. ;)

Offline igor

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #16 on: December 06, 2017, 06:38:23 PM »
I agree that when some changes result e.g. in your personal firewall suddenly showing previously unseen modules connecting to network, it is somehow confusing - and should be announced in advance, at least here.

Offline slama1304

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #17 on: December 06, 2017, 06:48:12 PM »
It is not additional software - it is simply another module of Avast Antivirus, not a new or unrelated program.

As drake127 said, new executable files appear (and disappear) in Avast installation folder daily, during virus definition updates - and sometimes even at other occasions, if needed. If the file is an "EXE" (which you are probably calling a program) or a DLL (a library), it doesn't matter, it's just a technical decision whether to make a piece of code an EXE or DLL (or something else, like a driver, or even just a "data file").  Btw, the difference between an EXE and DLL file is exactly one bit somewhere in the beginning of the file.
When I look at the installation folder of Avast Free, there's about 90 DLLs and 25 executables there - yet it's not an installation of 25 programs, it's just one - Avast Antivirus.

The discussed functionality (and much more) is already present in the "main" Avast modules, and has been there for years. It has only been extracted to (or possibly duplicated in) a standalone module in attempt to make the product more robust/reliable (and subsequently to provide a better protection with less compatibility issues).

what you are saying goes under "3. UPGRADES AND UPDATES"
what this "program" does is not covered by "3. UPGRADES AND UPDATES", because Avast have created separate folder on my computer and install "program" that is doing something I was not made aware.
... and of course this is computer program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_program no mater how you want to call it

i'm no programer, but you could have this program run as you have it now and it there is some thing that have to be done, let me know in notification and let me decide what i want to do ... or have this program "report" to some module that already have permission to go on line and have it do what needs to be done....
« Last Edit: December 06, 2017, 06:55:44 PM by slama1304 »

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #18 on: December 06, 2017, 06:53:47 PM »
Yeah, probably the first time I read our EULA. :) It seems we have pretty good lawyers but I have no intention to hide behind them. If you come up with any constructive suggestions, I have some measure of control of the overseer's feature set. However, you need to be realistic and proportional. There is no point having Avast communicating and downloading VPS while blocking overseer.exe as there's virtually no benefit to either data traffic nor your privacy.

bob3160: It's a good idea, we'll discuss it but it will be difficult to decide what deserves to be mentioned and how to present it. In this case, it's quite difficult to reasonably describe feature that just fixes few quite technical corner cases. I expect that "improved stability" doesn't cut it. ;)

Exactly as other users, I got i new sudden pop of my firewall for overseer trying to connect.

The trouble is we can't trust really nothing today. So don't use third party, other directories ...

The really worry think about that - it's Ubisoft dev program  :o, Not like Kaspersky dev pool, or any other AV company. NO it's a business company selling program that should be under investigation by our AV...

Check where is from and what ever guys, be ethical please, it's so easy to see when some compagny are acting non in the user's goal.  >:(

Saying it's a emergency update way to fix Avast, and taking in that we all get this pop up today, what is your point - we all have broken avast version ? You get hacked and will publish about it in 8 month ?

Offline igor

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #19 on: December 06, 2017, 07:11:12 PM »
Saying it's a emergency update way to fix Avast, and taking in that we all get this pop up today, what is your point - we all have broken avast version ? You get hacked and will publish about it in 8 month ?

No, this is not an emergency updater - this is a "watchdog" which checks (from time to time) if the Avast Antivirus protection runs as expected. Only when it finds out that the protection is down and not working correctly, it attempts to fix it somehow.

The notification you get from your firewall is just a self-update check of this new module (as drake127 said, this module has its own update/release cycles - intentionally, because if it was too connected and dependent on the other Avast Antivirus modules, then if the Avast installation gets somehow corrupted, this watchdog would probably get corrupted too, and wouldn't be able to fix the problem).

Offline Rundvleeskroket

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #20 on: December 06, 2017, 08:27:09 PM »
  • How does it communicate:
    It always attempts to connect to the Internet to download its updated definition file. It's signed plain text, so feel free to check for yourselves: [link removed]

What was behind the link you removed?

Offline drake127

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #21 on: December 06, 2017, 08:52:38 PM »
What was behind the link you removed?
Code: [Select]
h..p://overseer.tools.avcdn.net/tools/avast/overseer/x86/overseer.exe.def

Offline RejZoR

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #22 on: December 06, 2017, 08:58:40 PM »
Finally! I've been asking you guys for an autonomous diagnostics component in avast! which would keep an eye on integrity and operation of avast!. I hope the results will be good so we get best functioning avast! on as many systems as possible.
Visit my webpage Angry Sheep Blog

Offline Asyn

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #23 on: December 07, 2017, 05:04:22 AM »
I agree that when some changes result e.g. in your personal firewall suddenly showing previously unseen modules connecting to network, it is somehow confusing - and should be announced in advance, at least here.
+1
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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #24 on: December 07, 2017, 10:57:27 PM »
So how do we disable this? I have it blocked by comodo, but don't want it spamming me multiple times per day behind the scenes.

Just add it to the Component list and let us Uninstall it.

Offline bob3160

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #25 on: December 07, 2017, 11:01:52 PM »
So how do we disable this? I have it blocked by comodo, but don't want it spamming me multiple times per day behind the scenes.

Just add it to the Component list and let us Uninstall it.
If you want Avast to do it's job, then allow it to do so.
Sounds like you would rather use Comodo. Enjoy. :)
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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2018, 10:22:05 PM »
So I installed Avast a while ago and I decided to uninstall it about a month ago.
I followed all the instructions as specified in the Avast website (downloaded avastclear.ex etc) and today I noticed Avast Overseer running on my PC!
The folder location "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avast Software\Overseer" is still there even after the Uninstall and this programm is running.
I would like to know how can I permanently stop Overseer or any other Avast software from running on my PC.
Thanks in advance.

Offline MotherDawg

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #27 on: February 26, 2018, 11:48:00 AM »
So I installed Avast a while ago and I decided to uninstall it about a month ago.
I followed all the instructions as specified in the Avast website (downloaded avastclear.ex etc) and today I noticed Avast Overseer running on my PC!

Classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing... LoL!

If you have ripped avast out of your box, don't be shy, delete the \Avast Software\Overseer folder, delete the task within Task Scheduler and, *** if you know what you are doing ***, I would go through my Registry and search for "Overseer" leftovers.
There are 2 inscriptions in the registry but I 'think' deleting the task will erase them.
And I would also make a manual search for "avast" as with 180+ registry inscriptions (and I only install the FILE and the WEB components), they're bound to forget some.

@Pondus, your first answer in this thread,  Reply #1, was really helpful. Congratulation... a link to the lamest forums on the planet. "Unbalivable!"
Your other answers,  Reply #9, #13, roughly amounts to washing your hand in the face of user having technical issues with the software you're supposed to... "Evangelize". Trowing legal mumbo jumbo at us. Shame on you. For Avast sake, find something else to do.

@Drake and Igor, thank you guys for your time, thank you for taking care.
NOW HEAR THIS !
I don't want any Free Loading Avast Evangelists, with 40-80 thousand posts, to answer on anything here as none of you actually work for Avast Software S.R.O... and seriously, who wants an answer from lifeless zombies that know nothing and have no power to have anything changed... you can only forward issues.
On the other hand, I welcome posts from normal users that do have possible solutions.

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #28 on: May 14, 2018, 06:14:10 PM »
drake127 said
. . . It seems we have pretty good lawyers but I have no intention to hide behind them. . . .

Well said , thank you. 

drake127 also said
. . . If you come up with any constructive suggestions, I have some measure of control of the overseer's feature set. . . .

A "backup watchdog" is a great idea, imho.  And it should be difficult to remove.  But still under the control of the owner, eh? So I have a couple of suggestions.  They are not criticisms.  Also they may be for the PR people, not the software developer.
1.  Prior notice.  Avast often creates popups. One of these might announce the proposed change, and have a link to find out about it. 
2.  Transparency.  The user can follow the link to learn the details and make a decision to go or nogo. 
3.  Full disclosure.  How the new software will change the 'net access, uninstall procedure, etc.   

Thank you, drake127, for developing the software and encouraging suggestions.




Offline Turin

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Re: What "avast overseer" is?
« Reply #29 on: July 22, 2018, 12:53:40 PM »
I suppose it will be correct to show checkbox at uninstall wizard screen: "Keep Avast Overseer".
And I would like to see it unchecked by default.