Avast AV hogging CPU

[ErnestoGuevarti]

Since this morning, avast AV has started using huge amounts of CPU (have you been taken over by Symantec?  ). Trying to open PDFs from my NAS puts it upto 100% usage, but even with nothing else happening its at 40-50% when usually for this it would be 5%.

Rebooted machine to see if it made any difference, and since then (about 2 hours ago, avast has used 6hrs of cpu time).

Version: 13.12
Virus: 19082204

PS your captcha verification is completely unreadable, after cycling through about a dozen images I tried listening to it, but it does not play anything (runs for zero seconds).

[ErnestoGuevarti]

To update, I've had to disable the File Shield to actually be able to use my mac today, kind of defeats the object of having an anti-virus doesn't it! Once I've done that CPU drops down to normal levels (5% from between 50-100%) and my machine stops hanging and locking up finder (or the entire machine) everytime I open or switch between pdfs.

Before disabling the shield that I was seeing the console being flooded with the following messages:
Aug 22 15:00:47 <machine> com.avast.fileshield[294]: avscan: AvScan timeout: scan did not finish in time

As a side note:
Hadn't moved off the free version because you still won't do a package that includes both mac and windows machines, would not matter much except that I have a 3 machine windows license that now only applies to 1 machine as I've mostly switched to mac or linux boxes, and don't feel like paying for things I'm not getting value for.

[Asyn]

As a side note:
Hadn't moved off the free version because you still won't do a package that includes both mac and windows machines, would not matter much except that I have a 3 machine windows license that now only applies to 1 machine as I've mostly switched to mac or linux boxes, and don't feel like paying for things I'm not getting value for.

-> https://www.avast.com/premium-security

PS: Captcha is only needed for your first 3 posts. (Spam protection)

[ErnestoGuevarti]

-> https://www.avast.com/premium-security

So does this mean that my existing 3 device licence for what is now Avast Premium will cover my mac? Probably need to start a new thread about this, assuming someone can get avast working on my mac again first.

[Asyn]

-> https://www.avast.com/premium-security

So does this mean that my existing 3 device licence for what is now Avast Premium will cover my mac?

Yes.

[ondrej.kolacek]

To update, I've had to disable the File Shield to actually be able to use my mac today, kind of defeats the object of having an anti-virus doesn't it! Once I've done that CPU drops down to normal levels (5% from between 50-100%) and my machine stops hanging and locking up finder (or the entire machine) everytime I open or switch between pdfs.

Before disabling the shield that I was seeing the console being flooded with the following messages:
Aug 22 15:00:47 <machine> com.avast.fileshield[294]: avscan: AvScan timeout: scan did not finish in time

As a side note:
Hadn't moved off the free version because you still won't do a package that includes both mac and windows machines, would not matter much except that I have a 3 machine windows license that now only applies to 1 machine as I've mostly switched to mac or linux boxes, and don't feel like paying for things I'm not getting value for.

Hello,
thanks for reporting this issue. Please check your mail.
Kind regards,
Ondrej Kolacek

[ondrej.kolacek]

Hello,

the issue should be fixed via new VPS released at 27. August 2019, cca. 16:30 UTC. The cause was a bug in pdf processing code which led to infinite loop for small set of PDF files.


Unfortunately the update of VPS itself will not stop the infinite loop; if this is happening to you, force update of Avast (just in case automatic update did not download the new VPS yet) and afterwards either restart your computer or run the following command in terminal:

Code: [Select]

sudo killall com.avast.daemon
We apologise for the issue.
 
Kind regards,
Ondrej Kolacek