Malicious URL Blocked keeps popping up

[romyap]

Every time I navigate to a page, a red box appears at the lower right corner of the screen saying that avast! blocked a malicious URL. It contains a link to the following site: http://www.avast.com/lp-security-information-fp?utm_campaign=Virus_alert&utm_source=prg_fav_50_0&utm_medium=prg_systray&utm_content=en-us_virus-alert

What could be causing this and what should I do?

Thanks!

[SafeSurf]

When a red box appears telling you that it blocked a malicious url, Avast is telling you to abort the connection to that site because it found something bad (malicious) on that site.

Are your Avast definitions up to date?  What version of Avast are you using?

Is the link you gave below the url that Avast stated was malicious?  Can you give a screen shot and post it?

If you get such an event again, it is best to abort the connection to the site and not enter the site.  Basically Avast is warning you "do not enter" because it found a problem.  As long as you do not enter, you are OK; if you enter despite the warning, you are at your on your own and run the risk of getting malware. 

[romyap]

I'm using this version of avast: 101025-1

It is regularly updated.

The red box contains "Visit the avast! Community/ Q info portal for more info". That's the link i posted.

The red box appears or pops up in ALL the sites i go to, including this forum.

I took screen shots (see attached).

Thanks for your prompt reply!

[romyap]

here's the version of my avast! : 5.0.677

[SafeSurf]

The next time you get this red pop-up, and before you turn your machine off or restart, try doing the following:

- Right click the orange Avast icon in the bottom tool bar and a pop-up menu will appear.
- Click "Show last pop-up menu"
- There should be a place (doing this from memory) to upload the site to Avast.  This will occur during the next definitions update, and they will check it.  If it is a FP, it is usually fixed with the next update or shortly thereafter.

[SafeSurf]

The red box appears or pops up in ALL the sites i go to, including this forum.

When did this problem start?

1.   What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit?
2.   What product of Avast did you install?  Free, Pro, AIS?
3.   What other security software do you currently have or did you have in the past on this machine including antivirus (AV), firewall (FW), and other security programs?
4.   When was the last time you did any kind of scan in Avast, and if so what kind of scan was it?  Did it detect anything?  If so, did you put it in the Virus Chest (VC) or what did you do with it?
5.    Is your machine acting normally otherwise?

Please check your computer for malware with Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (MBAM).
·   Download free http://www.malwarebytes.org/ for an on-demand scanner.
·   Double Click mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
·   After install, click update so you have latest database before scanning.
·   Under Settings:
o   General: Automatically Save File After Scan Completes is checked off
o   Scanner Settings:  Check all boxes
o   Updater: Download and install update if available is checked off
·   Once the program has loaded, select "Perform FULL Scan", then click Scan.
·   The scan may take some time to finish, so please be patient.
·   When the disinfection scan is complete, a log will appear in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart. (See Extra Note).
·   Click the “remove selected” button to quarantine anything found.  You will find the infection details under the Quarantine tab.
·   The log is automatically saved by MBAM and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
·   Copy & Paste the entire report in your next reply.

Thank you.

[DavidR]

@ romyap
I don't know why it is happening as that is meant to be an avast forum (theme) location. Though I don't recognise the IP location as one that avast uses, see image.

Avast does have servers located at different locations to avoid them all going down at one time if there is a power out, etc. However, as you say this is happening at all other sites you try visit, I don't believe this has anything to do with the forum servers. I believe this is more likely to be malware, DNS redirection.

So I would say get going on the MBAM scan and I would also suggest another tool.
- SUPERantispyware (SAS). On-Demand only in free version.
Don't worry about reported tracking cookies they are a minor issue and not one of security, allow SAS to deal with them though. That also has improved scanning for the TDSS rootkit which may also be involved here.

Can you post a couple of other avast alerts windows, please crop the image to just the alert not a full screen, for those using dial-up connections.

[romyap]

Thanks for the help! Will do try these tomorrow and give you feedback. Again, thanks!

[DavidR]

You're welcome, happy hunting.