Author Topic: Exceptional folder issue  (Read 1225 times)

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Offline g_man

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Exceptional folder issue
« on: February 14, 2021, 06:02:51 PM »
Hello,
I have a following issue:
I have a folder C:\X added to the Ransomware shield, but I want to add C:\X\code\* to exceptions so that I could compile my .cpp source codes using MinGW compiler and run the executables. The problem is that such an exception does not seem to work and I still get an error when trying to build my app. At the same time, if I remove C:\X from Ransomware shield, everything works just fine. This looks weird to me because what is the point of exceptions if they do not work? I hope that I am actually doing something wrong and you guys will help me out with this as I want my C:\X sub-folders to be safe except the C:\X\code\*.
For now I removed C:\X from secured folder list in Ransomware shield configuration menu and added all the sub-folders C:\X\1, C:\X\2... to the secured list except the C:\X\code so that I can compile and run my programs, but this solution is just odd.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2021, 07:24:02 PM by g_man »

Offline DavidR

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Re: Exceptional folder issue
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2021, 09:29:31 PM »
The Ransomware point is a bit of a Red Herring as it works in completely a different way, e.g. stopping contents from being modified to prevent you using them and being held to ransom.

If you had a C:\Development folder then C:\Development\* should add the C:\Development folder and sub-folders to the exclusions list.  See attached image.

Presumably you are getting alerts ?
If so a screenshot of the alert window might help.

However, I don't know what it is that you are doing there, as simply executing a file from that location shouldn't alert, but that doesn't stop the actions of the process if that takes it outside of the exclusion zone.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2021, 09:31:46 PM by DavidR »
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Offline g_man

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Re: Exceptional folder issue
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2021, 09:30:41 AM »
Thanks for answer but it seems that you have misunderstood me. In my post I am talking of two avast features:
1) Ransomware protected folder list;
2) Exception folder/file/webpage list.
The folder I want to be able to compile my programs in is not a root folder as in your "C:\Development" folder example. If it would be like this, I would not have any questions at all. I would not include this folder neither in one of the previously mentioned lists and everything would work like a charm. In my case "Development" folder is an sub-folder of, for example, folder "C:\MyStuff" - "C:\MyStuff\Development". There are also folders like "C:\MyStuff\Movies", "C:\MyStuff\Pictures", "C:\MyStuff\Downloads" etc. So, the tree is like this:
C:\MyStuff
C:\MyStuff\Movies
C:\MyStuff\Pictures
C:\MyStuff\Downloads
C:\MyStuff\Development
What I want:
Movies, Pictures, Downloads should be secured from ransomware, but Development should not (When building my C++ project in CodeLite I get Access is denied error, if avast secures this folder). Easiest way with less steps to achieve this would be to add "C:\MyStuff" to the Ransomeware protected folder list and add "C:\MyStuff\Development\*" to exceptional folder list. But if I do like this, I do not achieve what I wanted - there is still the error when building my project. My current workaround is to add only these sub-folders to the ransomware protected folder list:
C:\MyStuff\Movies
C:\MyStuff\Pictures
C:\MyStuff\Downloads
At this case everything works but it is not a correct way as I can create new folders under C:\MyStuff and I could forget adding them to avast ransomware protection list.

Offline DavidR

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Re: Exceptional folder issue
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2021, 09:26:30 PM »
Apologies if I'm not making it very clear, I no longer have the Ransomware Shield installed so I can't check it physically.

The problem is that the shields and there protected/exclusions areas work differently.

I believe that the Ransomware protects the MyStuff Folder and all its sub-folders (not sure if this would require the \* wildcard or not.

Though the Ransomware Shield FAQ isn't clear either, https://support.avast.com/en-id/article/Antivirus-Ransomware-Shield-FAQ that said I have just found this https://support.avast.com/en-id/article/51/ and one of the images does show multiple locations within the documents folder, https://support.avast.com/en-id/article/51/ 

So it looks like you could create individual paths for the sub-folsers within MyStuff, folder as you did.
What I don't know is don't have the development path in the ransomware protection will it protect by default of not.

The Avast Exceptions option however.
As far as I'm aware is for the malware scanning shields (as in the attached image), not the Ransomware shield (which if you don't want it to scan, no need to include the location in its protection), such as the File and Web Shields (hard drive and web locations). 
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Offline NON

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Re: Exceptional folder issue
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2021, 01:28:02 AM »
Try adding your compiler(s) to "Allowed apps" list.
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