Avast SecureDNS & HTTPS Web Shield Problems... (Avast 2015)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi Guys,

I am currently having problems with the “Avast SecureDNS”. It seems that when the SecureDNS is enabled I get a message informing me that the DNS servers are not responding. I have tried manually changing the DNS as well…

The “SecureDNS” has Hijacked my current DNS provider without consent via the upgrade interface…

Update 1: It seems I am one of the few people having problems with HTTPS intercepts via web shield affecting my web spotify access/auth handshake. To bypass the problem you can disable https in the active protection settings under the web shield. This is something that certainly needs tinkering with.

Running Avast 2015 build 2015.10.0.2206

Problematic Module: Web Shield
Browser: FF33
Application: Flash Player
Problematic Element: HTTPS
Affecting: http://play.spotify.com

Temp Solution: Disable HTTPs Scanning on Web Shield.

Error Logs
21/10/2014 21:54:39 AAVM - initialization error: AvResRun failed, ahressecdns.dll.
21/10/2014 21:54:51 AAVM - initialization error: AvResRun failed, ahressecdns.dll.
21/10/2014 21:55:05 AAVM - initialization error: AvResRun failed, ahressecdns.dll.
21/10/2014 21:56:13 AAVM - initialization error: AvResRun failed, ahressecdns.dll.
21/10/2014 21:56:30 AAVM - initialization error: AvResRun failed, ahressecdns.dll

2

Hi, where do you see the message about dns servers not available?

3

Hi Lukor,

In the browser, Attempting to flush the dns via ipconfig /flushdns and releasing and renewing the connection seems invaild.

I’m going to try and reinstall avast again and see if the problem happens then. If it does ill post back up.

4

Ok, After installing Avast i get this message. “SecureDNS can’t run on this network.”

I’m wondering why.

5

On startup we are trying to establish connection with the best of our secure dns servers all around the world. SecureDNS Shield is briefly measuring the network latencies and choosing the best server / port for your particular connection. We run many servers in our datacenters, so it doesn’t really matter if some of them are inaccessible (for whatever reason), but if all are blocked - say your firewall is blocking the traffic on all the ports we use - avast presents you this message - “SecureDNS can’t run on this network”.

So we have here two questions:

  • why this happens on your particular network (can be perfectly ok, just strict network settings)
  • why this wasn’t reported on the first install and instead of turning off, secureDNS was trying to communicate, which when failed caused your network connections to fail as well.

You can also try to enable secure dns logging and then uploading (or sending to my email directly) the resulting SecureDns.log file.

To enable securedns logging:

  • disable self-defence in settings/troubleshooting
  • download http://public.avast.com/dev/streamfilter.ini and place it into C:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Avast
  • restart all shields or the service process
  • when the problem occurs - stop SecureDNS shield and send me the resulting file: C:\ProgramData\Avast Software\Avast\log\SecureDns.log

Thank you,
Lukas.

6

Hi Lukor,

Just wanted to give you a quick update, It seems that Spotify may be blocking DNS queries from the web player. I was using the web player today before installing Avast 2015 without problems. I suspect there’s a problem with Avast.

Are you guys by any chance blocking abmr.net?

7

Actually just traced the fault to Avast it’s self, Disabling the web shield system seems to have brought back the play.spotify.com url. I suspect Avast has broken. (cant start up components now.) Ill reinstall (3rd time lucky)

8

Ok, I can confirm there is a bug with the active web scanning engine and the Spotify Web Player.

The URL: http://play.spotify.com

Problem: If you visit play.spotify.com you get the message “connecting to spotify please wait”, if you disable the web shield you can connect without problems.

Have you reinstalled Avast 2015? Yes twice using the AvastClear Utility.

This seems to be a Avast Problem, Would be more than happy to email over any logs needed.

9

I can connect to that site with no problem AIS 2015, IE11

10

Hi essexboy,

I am using FF33.0 (which uses the flash plugin that isn’t ActiveX enabled.) I’m guessing the blockage is between the normal flash plugin, ff33 and avast’s web shield.

11

I have no problem with the site … using Firefox 33

TerraX

12

Ok,

I have been narrowing down the bug even further, Reinstalled Avast again, After tinkering around I think Ive found a bug in the HTTPS web shield mode. If you disable the HTTPS mode when using the web shield the problem fixes it’s self. This is a major problem for my setup for some reason…

Glad everyone else isn’t having problems with the install…Just wishing I had kept a copy of Avast 2014 handy… :frowning:

Happy yo send any logs to avast. (pm’d lukor so i can email him them.)

13

I have spoken to Lukor about the problem,

I was given a utility to run/change settings in Avast. Unfortunately the application crashed during it’s run-time and cannot be terminated.

I am waiting for Lukor to get back in touch about the matter.

14

I decided to reboot the computer, the utility was able to run and I was able to gather 3 samples of the problem.

All the data has been emailed over to Lukor for closer inspection.

15

Ok,

I have reinstalled the browser (with a new profile), Reinstalled a clean copy of Avast and the problem still persists.

Disabling the HTTPs element of the web shield fixes the problem tempoarily. My guess is that the decryption module is struggling with one of spotify’s js files, Not sure as of yet thought.

16

Hi All,

Got a response back from Lukas

Oliver, thank you. Several devs here are already looking into this bug. It is related to https scanner, but only indirectly – when https scanner is disabled, no processing is done on that particular connection and therefore no problems are visible. Currently it seems the problem is inside the http parser itself. We are able to reproduce it, so we are going to fix it soon.

Thanks again for reporting this, I’ll let you know about any progress.

So it seems Avast is on the case for fixing this bug.

17

How do you disable SecureDNS in FREE ?
I installed V10 on one PC and it and other PCs not longer could see internet thru my router.
I only installed CUSTOM shields only but I saw SecureDNS with “?” without ability to not install.
I assume somewhere in settings this can be disabled ?..I’d like to see if that solves issue.

18

Secure DNS is not available in the free version.

19

SecureDNS is not offered for free version as far as I know. Only Premium version have it. That is why there is no box for it in installer.

20

Ok if you do have the paid for version of Avast you can uninstall SecureDNS by going to the uninstaller and selecting it under the active protection tab.

Hope this helps.