decompression bomb

[weybrew]

I've just run my first scan and your program found multiple archive items tagged as "password protected," "corrupted," and one "compression bomb." Your program couldn't handle via any action. How do I get rid of these?

[DavidR]

All are nothing to worry about.

Decompression Bomb, a file that is highly compressed, which could be very large when decompressed. This used to be a tactic long ago to swamp the system, see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=8943.msg73950#msg73950

Corrupt archive is more likely to be that it can't be fully unpacked to be scanned.

Many programs (usually security based ones) password protect their files for legitimate reasons such as AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy, there are others (and avast doesn't know the password or have any way of using it even if it did know it).

When you run scans with the above programs and you delete harmful entries that they detect, a copy is kept (in quarantine/restore/backup) in case you need to reverse what you did. These are usually password protected, you should do some housekeeping and delete old backup/recovery/quarantine entries (older than two weeks or so), this will reduce the numbers of files that can't be scanned.

By examining 1) the reason given by avast! for not being able to scan the files, 2) the location of the files, you can get an idea of what program they relate to. You may need to expand the column headings to see all the text. If you can give some examples of those file names, the locations and reason given why it can't be scanned might help us further ?

Files that can't be scanned are just that, not an indication they are suspicious/infected, just unable to be scanned.

[weybrew]

Thanks for the information. I'm not too worried about the "corrupt" files or the one s not available for scanning, but the "bomb" worries me a bit. It's listed as:

C:Windows\Internet Logs\tvDebug.zip\...\PartNo 0#2659764018

Your program did manage to move some of the files to your DATA folder, but why can't it just delete these things?

[Lisandro]

Your program did manage to move some of the files to your DATA folder, but why can't it just delete these things?

Their program... we're users like you
The action could be denied due to file in use, the file is packed into an archive, etc.
Are you using Windows XP/Vista?
Can you schedule a boot-time scanning?
Start avast! > Right click the skin > Schedule a boot-time scanning.
Select for scanning archives.
Boot.

[DavidR]

<snip>
Your program did manage to move some of the files to your DATA folder, but why can't it just delete these things?

Deletion isn't really a good first option (you have none left), 'first do no harm' don't delete, send virus to the chest and investigate.