[Feature Suggestion] Core Shield Email Scanner - Port Customization

[cphinx]

I recently switched both my home machines and my business machines over to Avast.  While very happy with the product, I noticed that the "Avast email signature" was not being added to out going emails using M365/Exchange or IMAP accounts with non-standard IMAP/SMTP ports.  One might ask why I care about the signature... well I don't really but it sparked my interest.  I found that the signature was being added for IMAP/SMTP accounts that use standard ports but was not for those accounts using non-standard.

After a bit of investigation, I realized that it's very likely none of my business emails are being checked by Avast and the same for my personal accounts which use special ports.

It would be great if I could customize the ports Avast Core Shield/Email scanner checks in order to achieve full functionality for email accounts on non-standard ports.

[NON]

Hello cphinx, welcome to the forums.

There are exact settings you described, though they are hidden in the depth of UI.
You can access these settings by following:
1. Open Avast user interface
2. Open Menu -> Settings
3. Open "Search" box and type "geek:area"
4. Find "Main shields" -> "Mail shield". Port settings are there

[cphinx]

Woah!  Thanks

I looked everywhere and couldn't find this so I figured it wasn't a part of the product.  Great news!

[cphinx]

Well, now I'm even more confused.  It does look like the right ports are already there.  So what I can't figure out is why the signature doesn't automatically append on some accounts but does on others.  Is there an answer for that somewhere that I have not found?

[cphinx]

Cool.  So I managed to get it to work for the non-Microsoft 365 account.  But I can't seem to find the right config or ports for M365.

[NON]

I don't use M365 so I can't say how to... what mail client do you use to access M365?

[cphinx]

I don't use M365 so I can't say how to... what mail client do you use to access M365?

It's Microsoft Office 365.  Outlook is the email client but I believe it uses 443 heavily.  Whatever port is used, it's the standard IMAP/SMTP ports.

[NON]

Unfortunately I don't use Outlook nor Office 365 for my e-mail so I can't test it for myself.
According to Google, Outlook / Microsoft 365 combination may use MAPI for communication instead of IMAP/POP3/SMTP.
And I'm not sure Mail shield supports MAPI in this case.

If you can see e-mail header sent/received from/to your client, it should have strings like these when scanned.

Code: [Select]

X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 201207-0, 2020/12/07), Outbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Anyway, we may need devs or members familiar with these experiences.

[cphinx]

Unfortunately I don't use Outlook nor Office 365 for my e-mail so I can't test it for myself.
According to Google, Outlook / Microsoft 365 combination may use MAPI for communication instead of IMAP/POP3/SMTP.
And I'm not sure Mail shield supports MAPI in this case.

If you can see e-mail header sent/received from/to your client, it should have strings like these when scanned.

Code: [Select]

X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 201207-0, 2020/12/07), Outbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Anyway, we may need devs or members familiar with these experiences.

I do see the header tagged on the end of received messages :

Code: [Select]

X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 201213-2, 12/13/2020), Inbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
But what's interesting is the Avast signature isn't added to outbound emails.

So I guess at the end of the day, the inbound emails are being scanned...

[r@vast]

Hi cphinx,

Do you have the latest AV 20.10 installed?
Could you please clarify for which email provider it works/not work?
What ports are you using?
Are all emails are sent via Outlook Microsoft 365 standalone email client or via webmail?

[cphinx]

Hi cphinx,

Do you have the latest AV 20.10 installed?
Could you please clarify for which email provider it works/not work?
What ports are you using?
Are all emails are sent via Outlook Microsoft 365 standalone email client or via webmail?

Yes, AV 20.10 is the version installed.

The account which the Avast signature is not being applied to is a business email.  We use Microsoft/Office 365 and the outlook desktop application.  The ports are default -- we have not changed them.  All emails are sent through the Outlook application installed on the PCs.

I do see the AV header is added to emails but the avast signature is not appended to outgoing messages.

[cphinx]

Hi cphinx,

Do you have the latest AV 20.10 installed?
Could you please clarify for which email provider it works/not work?
What ports are you using?
Are all emails are sent via Outlook Microsoft 365 standalone email client or via webmail?

I have also now just confirmed the same happens for @outlook.com for mail sent via the Outlook desktop application.  It still looks like the headers are being added to outgoing/incoming messages but the Avast signature is not added to outgoing emails.

[r@vast]

Hi cphinx,

Do you have the latest AV 20.10 installed?
Could you please clarify for which email provider it works/not work?
What ports are you using?
Are all emails are sent via Outlook Microsoft 365 standalone email client or via webmail?

Yes, AV 20.10 is the version installed.

The account which the Avast signature is not being applied to is a business email.  We use Microsoft/Office 365 and the outlook desktop application.  The ports are default -- we have not changed them.  All emails are sent through the Outlook application installed on the PCs.

I do see the AV header is added to emails but the avast signature is not appended to outgoing messages.

Hi,

Do you by any chance have these emails set up as Exchange accounts? If not then I would recommend that you repair Avast.
https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Repair-Antivirus/

[DavidR]

@ r@vast

Just a note to say that that article Repair Antivirus update needs to be updated as Item 5, the image doesn't match the latest Avast versions.

I recently checked this in a another topic and I captured an image of it.

[cphinx]

Hi cphinx,

Do you have the latest AV 20.10 installed?
Could you please clarify for which email provider it works/not work?
What ports are you using?
Are all emails are sent via Outlook Microsoft 365 standalone email client or via webmail?

Yes, AV 20.10 is the version installed.

The account which the Avast signature is not being applied to is a business email.  We use Microsoft/Office 365 and the outlook desktop application.  The ports are default -- we have not changed them.  All emails are sent through the Outlook application installed on the PCs.

I do see the AV header is added to emails but the avast signature is not appended to outgoing messages.

Hi,

Do you by any chance have these emails set up as Exchange accounts? If not then I would recommend that you repair Avast.
https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Repair-Antivirus/

Yes, I am sure that our business accounts are setup as Exchange accounts through Microsoft 365.  As for the @outlook.com account, I do believe that it is also an exchange account.  However, when I checked via another email application (Thunderbird), the ports were 993 and 587.  Both of which are already setup in Avast -- but still no outbound signature.

Strange.