Devs - Please, please, put something in to ask us if we want the hosts file tampered with.
I know many people don’t know what the hosts file is, or even if they have one, but for those of us who use it as a defense it is seriously annoying to find that it has just been raped and various addresses removed, even when we have the file set as “READ ONLY”! >:(
And then to find Avast! also attacking our backup copy when we go to repair the damage is taking “friendly fire” too far. >:(
If we’re going to monitor the hosts file, at least teach Avast! that 127.0.0.1 is a safe place! 8)
Hi igor - I think it sees addresses it doesn’t like. It’s a very good question, because obviously there are no signatures (or shouldn’t be ??? ) in a hosts file.
I will say that if Avast! is doing what I think it may be, then it is good in that .mp3 .avi & etc can be rapidly evaluated–we got caught badly long ago when a .mp3 took us to a very nasty site instead of playing Aerosmith!
Let me rephrase - do you see any popups from avast! reporting infections in that file (or at least in any other file, though such a functionality isn’t there yet)? If you don’t, then I somehow doubt the mentioned behavior is connected to avast!..
No, my bad. v7 was doing it. But yes, there would be a pop-up telling me that it had dealt with an “infection”, usually a Trojan :o And I would find the hosts file in the Virus Chest. Exactly the same would happen if I did anything with my backups.
As soon as I made the appropriate Exclusion the problem stopped–but it was by no means gone away.
I have Excluded hosts in my shiny new 9.0.2018, right from get-go so I’m not compromised again.
Hi NoelC - It is possible. However, after my experience with v7, I see no need to take risks and experiment to see if the problem has been fixed in v9.
I’ve been bitten, and I’m shy. A qualified reassurance from the devs would be of great assistance here.