An avast alert window opened and closed by itself?

I was minding my business when I was interrupted by a small avast window opening up in the middle of my screen, as if to alert me about something, but then immediately closing.
I didn’t get a chance to see what it said, it closed too fast.

I suppose my main concern is that it was trying to alert me to some malware, but the malware in question is hiding alerts from me. I don’t see anything in my notification history.

Try checking the Notifications section of the Avast User Interface (see attached image), under alerts and see if there is anything there.

I did, there isn’t anything there

If not then it is unlikely to have been an actual malware alert.

There is a possibility that it was something like a WiFi Inspector notification.
But without any information at all it is very hard to say what it may have been. You would have to check the various log files in the C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\report folder.

strange, can’t find anything
I’m glad it doesn’t seem to be anything serious, I guess

Hopefully so, but if it happens again, try to remember anything from the popup at all. If its too quick, what was it that you were doing at the time.

It is unusual that a popup should open and close immediately, some time ago in an earlier build of avast some people got this, ensure that you have the latest avast program version.

Update on this, I believe it was a window asking for permission to either block or allow a program access to something, as I got one today that was exactly like the one I missed, but it was while I was running sophos, and it was trying to scan some protected files, and like the first one it didn’t appear anywhere in my notification history.
But the first one also just happened at random, I was not running any specific programs

Now I’m concerned something gained access to my files without my knowledge, or omething was allowed through the firewall, how can I check what programs have been greenlit for what?

We really do need more details a screenshot of the alert window with the more details option opened.

However you mentioned “I got one today that was exactly like the one I missed, but it was while I was running sophos, and it was trying to scan some protected files,”

Running two antiviruses together can cause conflict and it could be this conflict showing, when sophos (what product as I’m thinking antivirus) tries to enter a protected area. So the information in the screenshot could be invaluable.

I don’t always run sophos, just occasionally for a second opinion
The last pop up was not regarding sophos, though, I was not running sophos at the time. I only know it was the same type of “allow or deny this program” alert.

Sorry that’s not a lot of info, but if theres a way to see a history of what programs have been allowed/denied by avast, it would be really helpful.

https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/298/ (Blocked & Allowed apps)