Avast Impersonator

[Tiffany S.]

I have Avast as my anti-virus software and Zone Alarm as my firewall.

Today Zone Alarm gave me a popup asking if I wanted to allow Avast to
access the Internet. I thought that this was a bit strange, because I
have Zone Alarm configured to allow Avast to access the Internet without
asking. Also, Avast had been automatically updating every day without
Zone Alarm first asking.

Anyway, thinking that Zone Alarm had experienced a glich, I clicked yes.
A few minutes later, I received a popup saying that Avast requires me to
power off and reboot. That's when I freaked.

Do you suppose that I allowed a virus calling itself Avast to install?

(I did not power off, but instead started an Avast disk scan. It's
running now.)

 

[optikl]

I have Avast as my anti-virus software and Zone Alarm as my firewall.

Today Zone Alarm gave me a popup asking if I wanted to allow Avast to
access the Internet. I thought that this was a bit strange, because I
have Zone Alarm configured to allow Avast to access the Internet without
asking. Also, Avast had been automatically updating every day without
Zone Alarm first asking.

Anyway, thinking that Zone Alarm had experienced a glich, I clicked yes.
A few minutes later, I received a popup saying that Avast requires me to
power off and reboot. That's when I freaked.

Do you suppose that I allowed a virus calling itself Avast to install?

(I did not power off, but instead started an Avast disk scan. It's
running now.)

Did you do an update to Avast recently that may have changed the
program's checksum? That may be why ZA alerted. Then again...

 

[Mutlley]

Did you do an update to Avast recently that may have changed the
program's checksum? That may be why ZA alerted. Then again...

I think your correct. My PC did the same on Monday . rebooted with
no problems..

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Tiffany S.:

Today Zone Alarm gave me a popup asking if I wanted to allow Avast to
access the Internet. I thought that this was a bit strange, because I
have Zone Alarm configured to allow Avast to access the Internet without

avast! has an update enginge that is treated like a separate program.
Also after a program update, avast! has a different signature, and
ZA will ask for program access over again (ZA doesn't see that it is a
new version of the same program, I think maybe ZA Pro does this).

asking. Also, Avast had been automatically updating every day without
Zone Alarm first asking.

That's the virus definitions, not the program update.

 

[Cat_in_awe]

I have Avast as my anti-virus software and Zone Alarm as my firewall.

Today Zone Alarm gave me a popup asking if I wanted to allow Avast to
access the Internet. I thought that this was a bit strange, because I
have Zone Alarm configured to allow Avast to access the Internet
without asking. Also, Avast had been automatically updating every
day without Zone Alarm first asking.

Anyway, thinking that Zone Alarm had experienced a glitch, I clicked
yes. A few minutes later, I received a popup saying that Avast
requires me to power off and reboot. That's when I freaked.

Do you suppose that I allowed a virus calling itself Avast to install?

(I did not power off, but instead started an Avast disk scan. It's
running now.)

Avast had a program update (not a virus-definition update) last night/today
and this will trigger your firewall to ask if it's OK to connect to the
internet, because the program that does the connection has changed. Normal
behavior, nothing is wrong. (Mine did this same thing this morning).

 

[Tiffany S.]

Thank you, everyone. I feel better about it, now.

 

[Wilbur Post]

(e-mail address removed) (Tiffany S.) wrote in @storefull-3335.bay.webtv.net:

(I did not power off, but instead started an Avast disk scan. It's
running now.)

sounds like an Avast program upgrade.

Did you do a ctrl-alt-del and look at the running tasks to see if there's
anything strange in there?