HI i encountered this virus (svhost.exe) when i did a boot-up scan, i hesitated to delete it because it said it was a System File, which the last time i encountered a infected system file caused my system to corrupt and i have to reformat.
i can’t seem to find anything when i google this, the result is always about svchost.exe…
should i just delete this? or i have to do something? thx
upload suspicious file(s) to www.virustotal.com and test with 40+ malware scanners
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Well it appears to have been a good detection by avast given the results in the virus total scan. Not to mention that the file name svhost.exe is close to the legit file name svchost.exe. The missinc ‘c’ in the suspect file svhost.exe is designed to mislead.
The location is also suspect C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\ as that isn’t a legit location even for the legit version of the svchost.exe file (there is no svchost.exe in that location on either my XP or win7 systems). So all of this leads me to believe it is a valid detection and you should send it to the avast chest where it can do no harm.
Deletion is never a good first action, you have none left, move to the chest and investigate. If after a few weeks there are no adverse effects from it being in the chest, scan it within the chest and if still detected, delete it from within the chest.
The thing is how did it get there and is there any other hidden/undetected malware on your system. This may need further investigation.