Avast installed itself

bob3160 · 2019-07-22T19:56:57.000Z

@IHsteAvt,
What brand of computer are you using on which this mysterious installation happened?
Thanks

empressindian22 · 2019-07-22T23:58:08.000Z

The same thing happened to me, I haven’t used my laptop in 2 weeks and haven’t downloaded anything new in months but I turned iton today and “avast” opens up on the screen as soon as I log in and opened an internet explorer browser before I could even type anything. I’ve never heard of this program and it looks like a virus, how did it download to my computer?!
And before the same smart ass dude says it can’t download itself again, it apparently did since no one but myself lives in my house or uses this laptop. So genius how did it get there?!

terry_horsnell post:1:

To whom it may concern:

I don’t know if this is the right place to post this but it sems very difficult to contact your company and I would like to make the following points:

One of your products has apparently installed itself on my Windows 10 partition as some sort of trial.

How or why did was it able to do this?

I don’t want it - I’m happy using SOPHOS and WIndows Defender

Will Windows’ uninstall feature get rid of it completely?

How do I know if it has altered or disabled anything on my computer?

How can I stop this happeneing again?

Who can I report this to?

regards
Terence

bob3160 · 2019-07-23T00:16:36.000Z

It would have been nice if you could answer The question. What brand is your computer?

IHateAvast · 2019-07-23T21:32:17.000Z

My laptop is a HP Pavillion Laptop.

I have now had a response from the Chief Executive of Avast, so I am looking to investigate it with him.

bob3160 · 2019-07-23T21:52:29.000Z

I Hate Avast post:91:

My laptop is a HP Pavillion Laptop.

I have now had a response from the Chief Executive of Avast, so I am looking to investigate it with him.

Here’s what I’ve been able to find out:

“Hi Bob, I can’t really say what could be the root cause of this issue without proper log analysis of course.
But off the top of my head, this may happened within our HP OEM deals migration campaing which was triggered couple of weeks ago.
Can you please ask for user’s PC specification if we can confirm this theory?
If the theory is true the SecureLine app on user’s computer was just updated (automatically in the background), not newly installed.
And as the SecureLine app might just be lying there unused for a very long time, it may be surprising for the user indeed.”

If I found out anything else, I’ll post it here. If you get any additional information, please do the same.

IHateAvast · 2019-07-23T22:10:05.000Z

Thank you Bob

I will continue my dialogue with Avast too and I will gladly post any resulting reply.

What kind of specification information would be needed?

IHateAvast · 2019-07-23T22:19:19.000Z

This is an extract of specifications…

C:\WINDOWS\system32>systeminfo

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
OS Version: 10.0.17134 N/A Build 17134
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation
OS Build Type: Multiprocessor Free
Registered Organization: Hewlett-Packard
Product ID: 00326-10000-00000-AA940
Original Install Date: 28/05/2018, 12:42:14
System Boot Time: 18/07/2019, 22:46:51
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC
System Type: x64-based PC
Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed.
[01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 61 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~1400 Mhz
BIOS Version: Insyde F.36, 02/02/2015
Windows Directory: C:\WINDOWS
System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2
System Locale: en-gb;English (United Kingdom)
Input Locale: en-gb;English (United Kingdom)
Time Zone: (UTC+00:00) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London
Total Physical Memory: 8,114 MB
Available Physical Memory: 4,680 MB
Virtual Memory: Max Size: 11,186 MB
Virtual Memory: Available: 7,715 MB
Virtual Memory: In Use: 3,471 MB
Page File Location(s): C:\pagefile.sys
Domain: WORKGROUP
Logon Server:
Hotfix(s): 10 Hotfix(s) Installed.
[01]: KB4100347
[02]: KB4343669
[03]: KB4346084
[04]: KB4477137
[05]: KB4485449
[06]: KB4497398
[07]: KB4497932
[08]: KB4503308
[09]: KB4509094
[10]: KB4507435

bob3160 · 2019-07-23T22:21:18.000Z

I Hate Avast post:93:

Thank you Bob

I will continue my dialogue with Avast too and I will gladly post any resulting reply.

What kind of specification information would be needed?

Computer specs. Good program to use would be Speccy (Portable) https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/builds

bob3160 · 2019-07-23T22:23:18.000Z

bob3160 post:95:

I Hate Avast post:93:

Thank you Bob

I will continue my dialogue with Avast too and I will gladly post any resulting reply.

What kind of specification information would be needed?

Computer specs. Good program to use would be Speccy (Portable) https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/builds

I’ve passed that information on. Thanks

IHateAvast · 2019-07-23T22:26:21.000Z

Thanks Bob

Christoffer18 · 2019-12-11T10:41:38.000Z

This is very interesting. As this is also something that just happened to me. I’ve always used F-secures antivirus solutions, but my subscription ended end of October and I haven’t renewed it yet. So about 1 week ago Avast just suddenly appeared. Don’t know why cause I have never downloaded it or have downloaded anything that would have installed it. But I didn’t mind it anyways. Until yesterday when one of my cards apparently was used for Pakistan state oil com and my card got blocked by my card issuer. So then I started investigating and as it’s really really spooky how a program just installed itself onto my computer without me having installed it or done anything it just happened to be there. As previous comments have clearly been made that programs just doesn’t install themselves. And that’s true, something or someone has to install it. Which only makes me believe that someone unauthorized has done this. Which is really scary thinking that a hacker might use avast for something. They should look into that as that’s really serious. Just wanted to let you know that this is happening.

bob3160 · 2019-12-11T13:00:01.000Z

Christoffer18 post:98:

This is very interesting. As this is also something that just happened to me. I’ve always used F-secures antivirus solutions, but my subscription ended end of October and I haven’t renewed it yet. So about 1 week ago Avast just suddenly appeared. Don’t know why cause I have never downloaded it or have downloaded anything that would have installed it. But I didn’t mind it anyways. Until yesterday when one of my cards apparently was used for Pakistan state oil com and my card got blocked by my card issuer. So then I started investigating and as it’s really really spooky how a program just installed itself onto my computer without me having installed it or done anything it just happened to be there. As previous comments have clearly been made that programs just doesn’t install themselves. And that’s true, something or someone has to install it. Which only makes me believe that someone unauthorized has done this. Which is really scary thinking that a hacker might use avast for something. They should look into that as that’s really serious. Just wanted to let you know that this is happening.

Unfortunately you don’t give any details and, without details, no investigation only speculation.

Pondus · 2019-12-11T13:31:50.000Z

Christoffer18 post:98:

This is very interesting. As this is also something that just happened to me. I’ve always used F-secures antivirus solutions, but my subscription ended end of October and I haven’t renewed it yet. So about 1 week ago Avast just suddenly appeared. Don’t know why cause I have never downloaded it or have downloaded anything that would have installed it. But I didn’t mind it anyways. Until yesterday when one of my cards apparently was used for Pakistan state oil com and my card got blocked by my card issuer. So then I started investigating and as it’s really really spooky how a program just installed itself onto my computer without me having installed it or done anything it just happened to be there. As previous comments have clearly been made that programs just doesn’t install themselves. And that’s true, something or someone has to install it. Which only makes me believe that someone unauthorized has done this. Which is really scary thinking that a hacker might use avast for something. They should look into that as that’s really serious. Just wanted to let you know that this is happening.

Do you use a old version of CCleaner?

Why has Avast been installed to my machine?
https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001205071-Why-has-Avast-been-installed-to-my-machine-

nonsaneno1 · 2020-05-22T01:24:09.000Z

I had the same thing happen to my pc, turns out its Asus gift box installing it over and over. You may have something similar.

bob3160 · 2020-05-22T11:52:14.000Z

nonsaneno1 post:101:

I had the same thing happen to my pc, turns out its Asus gift box installing it over and over. You may have something similar.

Sounds like something to talk to Asus about.

jnpeterson · 2020-06-07T01:53:05.000Z

Avast didn’t install itself, but it rode as bundleware on Bluefox Free PDF Converter with no way to opt out of the install. I’m sorry, but there’d be no way I’d ever trust any software or company that engages in that kind of quasi-malware behavior. Especially an antivirus program. I had to wait for a good minute or two for it to finish installing so I could uninstall the stupid thing.

rocksteady · 2020-06-07T14:43:27.000Z

jnpeterson post:103:

… I had to wait for a good minute or two for it to finish installing so I could uninstall the stupid thing.

To completely uninstall Avast, download the uninstaller from here:
https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

bob3160 · 2020-06-07T14:49:04.000Z

jnpeterson post:103:

Avast didn’t install itself, but it rode as bundleware on Bluefox Free PDF Converter with no way to opt out of the install. I’m sorry, but there’d be no way I’d ever trust any software or company that engages in that kind of quasi-malware behavior. Especially an antivirus program. I had to wait for a good minute or two for it to finish installing so I could uninstall the stupid thing.

The folks to be angry at are Bluefox. You also should have used the custom install of their program to avoid installing bundled software.
Install something like Unchecky to prevent unwanted installs. https://unchecky.com/

jnpeterson · 2020-06-10T00:17:44.000Z

The folks to be angry at are Bluefox. You also should have used the custom install of their program to avoid installing bundled software.
Install something like Unchecky to prevent unwanted installs. https://unchecky.com/
[/quote]
Actually, I doubt Bluefox is bundling Avast out of the goodness of their hearts for altruistic reasons. Avast has sanctioned this kind of behavior somewhere.

dirtytricks · 2020-10-25T21:28:41.000Z

Had need of an FTP app for the first time in many years, was pleased to see FileZilla still kicking around, which soon turned to disgust when it silently installed avast antivirus. WTF!

I already had antivirus installed, which this corruptware choose to ignore, and it also triggered three warnings on our IDS.


Threat Management Alert 1: Signature ET DNS Non-DNS or Non-Compliant DNS traffic on DNS port Opcode 8 through 15 set. From: 10.10.1.100:53178, to: 185.246.208.33:53, protocol: UDP
Threat Management Alert 1: Signature ET DNS Non-DNS or Non-Compliant DNS traffic on DNS port Opcode 8 through 15 set. From: 10.10.1.100:53176, to: 77.234.42.35:53, protocol: UDP
Threat Management Alert 1: Signature ET DNS Non-DNS or Non-Compliant DNS traffic on DNS port Reserved Bit Set. From: 10.10.1.100:53169, to: 43.245.161.2:53, protocol: UDP

Why would any sane person choose to trust a company like Avast for their antivirus needs, when they clearly have dodgy business tactics?

FileZilla uninstalled and replaced with WinSCP.

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