AVG false positives?

Dreamstalker

Member

​

Joined

Nov 13, 2004

Location

Brookline, MA

• Jul 20, 2007

• #1

All of a sudden, AVG is finding trojans everywhere on my mom's XP rig (it has flagged WinRAR, Python, and a few other innocent programs recently; this was not happening 3 days ago). The alleged virus names are not turning up on any searches (save for one or two sites in an unknown language), a few online scans come up clean, and hijackthis is also fine.

Has anyone else been having any problems with the newest round of AVG updates doing this?

 

hibner

Member

​

Joined

Dec 5, 2003

Location

Huntington, WV

• Jul 20, 2007

• #2

I haven't seen anything like that yet. I know AVG isn't the best scanner, but it serves my purposes. It sounds like you have covered all the bases by checking online scanners. I would say your fine. Just flag them as safe and go on with your day.

 

dudleycpa

Member

​

Joined

May 20, 2002

• Jul 20, 2007

• #3

I use AVG Free on one of my rigs. Haven't noticed anything unusual.

I do remember that AVG used to always think Java was a virus.

 

stratcatprowlin

Senior Member

​

Joined

Nov 27, 2003

Location

MG,Brazil

• Jul 21, 2007

• #4

I had AVG peg winrar a few months ago as well.It removed or changed one file from the folder and winrar still worked after that so...lol I have no idea.

 

ps2cho

Member

​

Joined

Oct 13, 2004

• Jul 21, 2007

• #5

I'd suggest looking a little deeper. Does the computer have a firewall? If not, install Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6 and see what the outgoing traffic is. Also I'd suggest installing the new AVG software that scans the kernel for intruders. Better safe than all the money in your moms bank account gone next week.

 

OP

Dreamstalker

Member

​

Joined

Nov 13, 2004

Location

Brookline, MA

• Jul 23, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #6

She has ZA Free, but I'll switch to Sygate (was planning to anyway). Today's update flagged Democracy Player as Download.Zlob...and the plot thickens.

 

hkgonra

Member

​

Joined

Aug 16, 2001

Location

West TN.

• Jul 23, 2007

• #7

I have noticed more false positives on AVG in the last week or so on several machines.

 

hafa

Member

​

Joined

Apr 19, 2003

Location

A tiny dot in the middle of the Pacific

• Jul 23, 2007

• #8

I have AVG pro installed on all of my customer's machines (well over 350 at this point) and have received no reports of this.

Subscribed to this thread...

 

OP

Dreamstalker

Member

​

Joined

Nov 13, 2004

Location

Brookline, MA

• Jul 24, 2007

• Thread Starter
• #9

She's using the free version, so it could be that this is a bug specific to the free version. Although tis very odd that all of a sudden certain updates would be doing it...

So far, Sygate hasn't picked up anything suspicious (with the exception of logging a million port scans from our router; is there any way to make it ignore that?).

 

dudleycpa

Member

​

Joined

May 20, 2002

• Jul 24, 2007

• #10

I haven't seen anything odd with AVG.

I have a small suggestion (small brained I am). Why not uninstall AVG, get the most updated version and see if you are still having problems.

 

hafa

Member

​

Joined

Apr 19, 2003

Location

A tiny dot in the middle of the Pacific

• Jul 24, 2007

• #11

dudleycpa said:

I haven't seen anything odd with AVG.

I have a small suggestion (small brained I am). Why not uninstall AVG, get the most updated version and see if you are still having problems.

Click to expand...

Unlike other anti-virus clients, AVG updates include version revisions. Unless no updates have been done, you should have the latest version.