AVAST VPN reconnects even if deactivated (macOS)

[robertjm]

Hi all,

My boss has the free version of Avast on his MacBook Pro, running macOS Big Sur. Today he showed me that something called Avast VPN is running on the laptop. This was nothing I installed, nor he, intentially, and the crazy thing is that there seems to be no way to permanently turn it off. When he disconnects, it stays that way for about one minute, only to reconnect. This happens even if we quit Avast and then deactivated the VPN in System Preferences.

His account has no subscriptions, so it shouldn't be the Avast Secure Line VPN (unless it got installed, and he's getting it for free). He already runs a VPN to connect to our corporate offices, so having a second VPN running is causing all sorts of competing problems when connecting.

How do I find it and turn it off? I didn't see anything in the Avast menu.

Thanks!!

Robert

[ondrej.kolacek]

Hello,

our Web Shield and Mail Shield components are using Apple's Transparent Proxy functionality to be able to scan web and mail traffic. Unfortunately when Apple has added the Transparent Proxy functionality, they have done it by modifying their VPN framework. Because of this, Transparent Proxy erroneously shows as VPN in Network settings. We have reported this to Apple about a year ago, as it is extremely confusing, but so far no reaction

So: There is no VPN, it should not interfere with other VPNs, it is simply Web and Mail shield using Transparent Proxy showing as VPN due to bad UI on Apple's part. You can test this by disabling Web and Mail shield and deleting the VPN item; it should not reappear.

Kind regards,
Ondrej Kolacek

[alsyli]

Hello.  I have this same issue with Avast and AVG free products on my M1 MacbookAir.  Every time I delete the VPN, it re-appears on its own, even when I deny proxy access (or whatever the term is). 

The issue does not occur on my Intel Macbook Air Retina running the same system software. 

When I informed AVG's customer service about it, they gave me the same reason as what was posted above, and when I pointed out that that didn't make any sense b/c my 2 Macs w/ diff processors but running the same OS didn't have the same issue, I got blown off.

I don't think it's just bad UI on the part of Apple....

[ondrej.kolacek]

Hello.  I have this same issue with Avast and AVG free products on my M1 MacbookAir.  Every time I delete the VPN, it re-appears on its own, even when I deny proxy access (or whatever the term is). 

The issue does not occur on my Intel Macbook Air Retina running the same system software. 

When I informed AVG's customer service about it, they gave me the same reason as what was posted above, and when I pointed out that that didn't make any sense b/c my 2 Macs w/ diff processors but running the same OS didn't have the same issue, I got blown off.

I don't think it's just bad UI on the part of Apple....

The "VPN" (btw on MacOS 13 Ventura the display name should finally be fixed by Apple) only appears as long as some of the components of the Antivirus that are active require it. This means that if you disable both Mail and Web shield, which are the two components that require it, "VPN" should not reappear when you delete it in Network settings.