Avast! concerns

[the8thstar]

Hello all,

I installed and ran Avast! (antivirus for Linux) just for the heck of it, with the latest definitions.

Well, the results are concerning me. After a long scan, it gave me a list of about 150 files and folders, with a choice of delete or quarantine.

Most of the files found are located on my Windows partition, but some were also found in / and in /home. I can access Windows from Ubuntu (with ntfs-utils) and vice-versa in Windows (with ext2fs). The oddest thing was that nothing was found when running Spybot (anti-spyware) and AVG (anti-virus) in Windows with the latest definitions in both.

For the record, I use Firestarter (iptables) in Ubuntu, AVG, Peerguardian and Spybot in Windows Vista and I have a hardware firewall on my modem too with NAT set to "on". I also have a bunch of addons in Firefox (on both systems) that supposedly protect my privacy.

So, here are my questions:

1. Is Avast! reliable?
2. If so, why didn't Spybot or AVG pick up anything?
3. Should I reinstall the system?
4. Am I ever going to be free from the badware???

[NewDisciple]

What is being identified by Avast? If I remember correctly, Spybot itself will create a false positive with other security programs.

[-grubby]

What is being identified by Avast? If I remember correctly, Spybot itself will create a false positive with other security programs.

Yah..they're probably false positives__________________

[rune0077]

For a funny test, download Avast for Windows as well and then run it in Windows - would be fun to see if it detects the same files as it did from Linux.

Either way, I used to use Avast when I used Windows, and I always found it very reliable and it kept my system Virus free (together with Spybot). Still, if you have a commercial anti-virus program, I would probably trust that instead, at least if it's one of the "big ones".

[the8thstar]

What is being identified by Avast? If I remember correctly, Spybot itself will create a false positive with other security programs.

I can't tell because I closed the Avast window and haven't tried running it again since. All I can remember is pagefile.sys (Windows) and several entries in /dev/* and /home/*. But there were far more than that unfortunately

[the8thstar]

For a funny test, download Avast for Windows as well and then run it in Windows - would be fun to see if it detects the same files as it did from Linux.

Either way, I used to use Avast when I used Windows, and I always found it very reliable and it kept my system Virus free (together with Spybot). Still, if you have a commercial anti-virus program, I would probably trust that instead, at least if it's one of the "big ones".

Good call. I'll try that.

[jrusso2]

All of them seem to give you false alerts. I always investigate before I delete or quarantine.

I have not seen Avast give more false alerts then the others like AVG and Avira. Avira seems to give the most false alerts but it has the highest detection rates. High detection rates will often give false positives.

[Jiraya]

For a funny test, download Avast for Windows as well and then run it in Windows - would be fun to see if it detects the same files as it did from Linux.

Either way, I used to use Avast when I used Windows, and I always found it very reliable and it kept my system Virus free (together with Spybot). Still, if you have a commercial anti-virus program, I would probably trust that instead, at least if it's one of the "big ones".

I'm not sure about that. We have McAfee Viruscan Enterprise at my work. Sometimes people gets viruses (bankers, principally) that Viruscan don't remove (even identify as virus), but the symptoms don't lie. We then have to install and update avast! and run a boot scan to remove the infections.

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[rune0077]

I'm not sure about that. We have McAfee Viruscan Enterprise at my work. Sometimes people gets viruses (bankers, principally) that Viruscan don't remove (even identify as virus), but the symptoms don't lie. We then have to install and update avast! and run a boot scan to remove the infections.

McAfee is crap. If you want a good virus scanner, check out tests done on somewhat respected sites (like PC World or some such), and take that as a guide. McAfee rarely does very well on those. Bit defender and Bullguard seems to be really good.

[Jiraya]

McAfee is crap. If you want a good virus scanner, check out tests done on somewhat respected sites (like PC World or some such), and take that as a guide. McAfee rarely does very well on those. Bit defender and Bullguard seems to be really good.

Hmm... I've never heard about that Bullguard. I'm just realizing that I need to update myself a bit

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