Avast Web Shield and Cloak VPN

Avast Mac Security
1

Avast Web Shield is deleting text from the results of retrieving a URL that the Cloak VPN app’s OverCloak feature uses to detect a captive portal. Without Web Shield enabled, the file comes back as

 all_good

Hexdump:

0000000 61 6c 6c 5f 67 6f 6f 64 0a                     
0000009

Note that this is plain text, there is no html. With Web Shield enabled the file comes back with only the crlf. Here is the hexdump:

0000000 0d 0a                                          
0000002

I whitelisted the Cloak URL specific to this request, both HTTP and HTTPS, and got the same results.

Currently the only workarounds I have found is to either disable Web Shield or disable OverCloak, neither of which are desirable.

Any help would be much appreciated.

2

I forgot to mention, I tried this both not using the beta channel and then enabled the beta channel and updated – same results.

3

The webshield is not “deleting” any text unless it detects an infection. And in this case you also
get the red popup.

A more detailed description of what exactly this “OverCloak feature” does is required to say more
about the issue. And the system log could be also helpful, if there are any relevant webshield
entries.