Avast in a development environment

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello,

So I recently downloaded Avast (free version) on my machine to give it a shot and I love it so far. However, I’m having some difficulties with how it scans executables I compile in a development environment.

I have a few questions and concerns about Avast on a machine used in active software development:

  • When I run an executable that I compiled from my own source code, Avast triggers its usual scan as you would expect. Ideally, I would like to white list a set of directories and their children to be excluded. I have attempted to edit the File System Shield Settings > Exclusions and it seems to work sometimes, but not consistently. I still have the occasional scan occuring. Could this be a bug or a user error? I’ve used regular expressions for my Exclusion settings, and tried various combinations of R/W/X to check, but with no luck.
  • Without the above attempt at settings, I’ve noticed that Avast does not consistently scan newly compiled binaries of my code. I have looked at File System Shield Settings > Advanced and disabled “Use persistent caching” as well as “Use transient caching” to see if that was causing the inconsistency, but I am still experiencing it. While this goes against what I want to accomplish, I am still concerned that my system is not getting scanned as thoroughly as a result after a piece of software is patched/updated. Is this, again, a bug or user error?
  • Is there a way to disable scans for executables that were generated by already scanned or trusted executables? My unit tests are generated in a temporary directory on my computer before being executed. And since Avast sees them as new, it will scan every time. I have semi-successfully whitelisted these generated directories/executables, but that means I’ve allowed programs that are potentially malicious in nature to have free reign in these directories. Is there a way to white list executables generated by another executable?

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to ask these. For the record, I am using Windows 10 with Avast v12.3.2280 build 12.3.3154.0 on a 64-bit platform.

Thanks in advance!

Viv

2

There are two sets of exclusions. Specific ones for individual shields and general ones. The one with R/W/X parameters you’re mentioning only applies to regular File System shield (normal file scanning), but doesn’t include other technologies like DeepScreen/CyberCapture.

For that you need to go to: Settings → General → (scroll down a bit) Exclusions.

You are in particularly interested in CyberCapture tab which dictates exclusions for that popup with animated file being screened. But you can also exclude your compiled binaries from ALL scans using the File paths tab.

Remember, what you exclude here gets excluded EVERYWHERE. What you exclude in the R/W/X menu of individual shield, it only applies to that specific shield.