Is Avast just high? or should I be concerned?

[Goldskis45]

My mother called me and had me come look at her laptop because out of the blue Avast decided that it needed to investigate notepad.exe
I have never heard of this before. Anybody have a clue?

For real, Notepad? why would it care about Notepad?

 

[grassman]

No need to even install a virus scanner, they are all junk. Just use the crappy M$ one once in a while and disable it as it tends to remove sh#t it shouldn't be.

 

[Kyze]

The filepath is pretty suspicious.

Get that file and upload it to virustotal.

@grassman: dont be too fast on that one, especially with people that arent as savy as the users on here.

 

[grassman]

I didn't even bother to look at the file path, Get rid of it.

 

[SuB]

yeah that's dodgy, get rid.

 

[Goldskis45]

Removed, and cleared out the massively full temp folder...
I've never heard of that "developer" and Google gave me zip.
(I'm a hardware guy not a software guy XD )

 

[SuB]

(I'm a hardware guy not a software guy XD )

I bet you say that to all the girls...

 

[Goldskis45]

Works more often than you would think ;D

 

[SPS]

I'm surprised an exe has managed to make it into her temp folder without permission.

I'd install Kaspersky Internet Security for the average user (you can get it cheap).

No need to even install a virus scanner, they are all junk. Just use the crappy M$ one once in a while and disable it as it tends to remove sh#t it shouldn't be.

Ignorance is bliss right? <_<

 

[SuB]

Ignorance is bliss right? <_<

I haven't bothered with anti-virus for years... never had an issue. *touch wood of course*

I found when using it it would cause more problems than it solved, easiest way to not get virus' is to not click on dodgy shit or adverts here there and everywhere, and instead of looking for free everything. Man up and pay.

All it takes is a little common sense...

 

[SPS]

I haven't bothered with anti-virus for years... never had an issue. *touch wood of course*

I found when using it it would cause more problems than it solved, easiest way to not get virus' is to not click on dodgy shit or adverts here there and everywhere, and instead of looking for free everything. Man up and pay.

All it takes is a little common sense...

How do you know you don't have malware?

 

[SuB]

Becuase I haven't clicked on or been on any site or email that could cause me an issue. They don't just magically appear by way of osmosis through your ethernet port.

 

[garih]

I haven't bothered with anti-virus for years... never had an issue. *touch wood of course*

I found when using it it would cause more problems than it solved, easiest way to not get virus' is to not click on dodgy shit or adverts here there and everywhere, and instead of looking for free everything. Man up and pay.

All it takes is a little common sense...

to a certain extent i agree with you, a loooong time ago i realised i would get less issues with genuine software. i mean, cmon we pay all this money for the hardware, why skimp on the software.

BUT.....


just cos ya didn't rip it off doesn't mean ya don't get issues, some sites get hacked and you dont know ya being infected, remember when oc3d had to change forum software due to malicious content? if i tried to go here AVG would stop the browser...

ofc if you spend all day on porn sites, and banner click like an idiot, yeh. ya gonna get problems, but just cos ya think ya careful doesn't make ya invincible

 

[grassman]

I haven't bothered with anti-virus for years... never had an issue. *touch wood of course*

I found when using it it would cause more problems than it solved, easiest way to not get virus' is to not click on dodgy shit or adverts here there and everywhere, and instead of looking for free everything. Man up and pay.

All it takes is a little common sense...

Exactly



^ He probably runs a scan once in awhile with Winblows Defender.
btw McAfee in itself is a key logger



Sub.. cos we invincible

on porn sites all day and banner click like an idiot ya we dont get problems we cos think we careful

INVINCIBLE

 

[SuB]

just cos ya didn't rip it off doesn't mean ya don't get issues, some sites get hacked and you dont know ya being infected, remember when oc3d had to change forum software due to malicious content? if i tried to go here AVG would stop the browser...

ofc if you spend all day on porn sites, and banner click like an idiot, yeh. ya gonna get problems, but just cos ya think ya careful doesn't make ya invincible

Of course not, but most of it requires some kind of permission to run, and running chrome/firefox prevents most of the tat. Not running IE is step numero uno towards a virus free life.

As for what happened here, I wish I'd been around, I had to pull a root'ed virus out of an IPB forum for another website, manually.. That was a bitch, let me tell you.

The thing is, being a web developer anyway, I know how much of the dodgy shit works, and I have enough tools installed to ignore most of it. Anti virus trash just gets in the way.

That's not to say it has it's place, for people who can't regedit and who click on every 'I SENT YOU A GREETINGS CARD' or 'YOUR INVOICE IS ATTACHED IN THIS ARBITRARILY NAMED ZIP FILE' email they see.. Of course they need something, the issue is stuff like Norton, Mcaphee and the like are all dogshit at it and just take up resources. There are better, lighter more advanced programs out there that aren't full of ram-eating crap that slow your system down.

And yes, the windows one has it's uses and shuts up the notification centre for a while.

Honestly, it's just common sense that really makes the most difference

 

[SPS]

I've had AV block malware trying to be downloaded before and blocking incoming attacks. You can be careful all you want and for the most part that is fine. Except when you click on link when you're researching something, it seems legit, and malicious files are being downloaded in the background, but without any program checking for this behaviour you are none the wiser.

 

[RAY16]

Becuase I haven't clicked on or been on any site or email that could cause me an issue. They don't just magically appear by way of osmosis through your ethernet port.

With the exception of that worm (which I forget the name of, maybe blaster or sasser?) that would infect Windows XP automagically if it was connected to the net. It got patched eventually (I forget when, exactly), but if you were to install a sufficiently outdated version of WinXP just for funsies there are probably still machines out there probing for whatever vulnerability it was exploiting. ¬_¬

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I have been working on computers for years both software and hardware specializing in virus removal. I have NEVER seen someone with a clean computer even from those saying they are good with computers and don't use one.

If you think disabling cookies and not clicking on dodgy "things" on the internet will keep you free of malware, spyware, adware, Trojans etc. you are dead wrong. Just visiting a website is more than enough to put a virus on a computer.

I use an anti virus simply because I have better things to do than monitor everything I am doing on the internet, and I prefer to also stay safe while I am not at home. I use an enterprise AV through McAfee and NEVER had an issue.

I have a drive on my computer called my CDC drive which has hundreds of infection from simple adware, to FBI virus, and advanced scripts that can physically destroy a computer. And for shits and giggles I activate them to see what they do on my test computer. This is how I train myself on the removal process.

Anyone who says Anti Viruses don't work are VERY naïve or ignorant. They work very well depending on who you go with. Unless you are on your computer every second it is on you are exposed.

Just my personal experiences.

 

[SuB]

Well of course, because you specialise in that area... No offence, but I'm neither naive, nor am I ignorant. I have enough working knowledge of computers, their OS, and web tech to avoid the necessary things. As previously mentioned I've pulled what was basically a root-kit virus out of a forum in the past, close all the back doors it created etc, so I know what I'm doing. I'm not trying to come across as big headed or whatever, I just honestly thing they cause more problems than they solve. Windows defender and associated shit is all that's needed these days the rest is just scare-ware for idiots who click on every fricking link they see.

99% of it is common sense

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Well of course, because you specialise in that area... No offence, but I'm neither naive, nor am I ignorant. I have enough working knowledge of computers, their OS, and web tech to avoid the necessary things. As previously mentioned I've pulled what was basically a root-kit virus out of a forum in the past, close all the back doors it created etc, so I know what I'm doing. I'm not trying to come across as big headed or whatever, I just honestly thing they cause more problems than they solve. Windows defender and associated shit is all that's needed these days the rest is just scare-ware for idiots who click on every fricking link they see.

99% of it is common sense

I understand the want to do everything yourself, and I respect that, it teaches you things about the computer Good on you. But to say "they cause more problems than they solve" is an ignorant statement. The only reason this could happen is with a crappy AV or you are big into piracy (which I am not saying you are). Most AV know what is good an bad and can understand what files go where. The real benifit to an AV is self sustainability. For us geeks it just helps because you cannot monitor everything on a computer at once. I persoanly just got tired of doing everything myself and decided to dedicate creating a fully sustainable computer. It make life SOOOO much easier.

If your AV was giving you problems you either refused to learn how to use the settings menu and scan methods or you used a crappy AV. A good AV with the proper settings should and most cases will not give you problems.

Sorry for any spelling/grammar problems. Did this on my phone.