Effects of win32:malware-gen?

[astrovale]

Avast Pro detected an infected .exe file reporting a win32:malware-gen virus.
I had already used this application many times and it did not seem to have caused any ill effect on my machine. But, since I guess some viruses do not intend do be detected and hence do not make themselves noticed, what kind of "damage" should I look for?
If Avast doesn't detect anything on my system, does it mean that the file did not create any harm? What are the chances of a false positive? It is a keygen file, so the chance of it containing a virus are not slim, but my previous antivirus (AVG) did not detect anything so.....

Thanks for any help guys 
Luca

[NON]

Hello, Luca

Please upload that file to VirusTotal and check the result.
http://www.virustotal.com/

Malware-gen is generic detection, so there is some possibility that it's a false positive.

[astrovale]

Hi NON and thanks for your reply.

I did upload the file to virustotal but the report was somewhat strange: the file name was reported wrong and so was the date and time. However the size resulted correct and the analysis was that 28/41 detected the file as a virus. However, if I suspend Avast and run the file it works perfectly and if I do a complete scan after reactivating Avast there is no threat anywhere in the computer. That is why I was asking what are the effects of these viruses on pc because I can't see any!     

Ciao NON

Luca

[Milos]

Hi,

I did upload the file to virustotal but the report was somewhat strange: the file name was reported wrong and so was the date and time.

Did you choose "Reanalyse" after uploading? Maybe it shows the last scan result of this file.

... if I do a complete scan after reactivating Avast there is no threat anywhere in the computer

Maybe the new VPS was installed, which fixed the false positive.


Milos

[astrovale]

Thanks Milos,

I did reanalyse but the result was the same. The size of the file reported by total scan seems correct, but the name of the file and the date are wrong, so the idea that virustotal is reporting some other file makes sense.


I don't believe it is the new VPS: in fact , if I ask to analyse the supposedly infected file I still get the same result, i.e. virus detection. Even to upload the file I have to suspend Avast otherwise I cannot extract it from the zip file where it resides because Avast places it immediately in the chest!

I don't know what else to do damn it

Luca

[Milos]

Hi,
it can be in setting -- maybe in scans only files with some extensions (.exe, .dll, ...) or don't unpack files, ...

Milos