How to know if avast got emailed file ?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

If I email a file from the Virus Chest to avast (Alwil) for analysis:
How do I know if they got it?
And then how do I know if they have analyzed it?
And what the analysis result was?

–Larry

2

Ususally no contact unless they need more info

usual advice is to check the individual files in the chest for the next several updaetes
if teh detection goes away it was a FP and now is a FIXED FP- thanks

Just curious
What was the HIT and what was the complete path found
didi you google?
did you upload to Virus Total- link please

I notice that avast staff will frequently confirm a FP

post the detauils and let’s see

3

Here’s the post that started this journey:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=38728.msg324714#msg324714

As I understand your post, if it is an actual virus, my only option is to keep testing the file in the virus chest and then someday decide it must be an actual virus. This is a really weak communication link. Since email is less than perfect it’s entirely possible that Awil did not even get the file for analysis!

I think this could be handled better. Even a canned reply saying the file was received would be of some benefit.

–Larry

4

Let’s not enter the realm of fantasy here. The vast proportion of emails get delivered - I have to agree that it is less than 100% perfect but let’s not pretend it is something less than very high.

You are using the “less than 100%” comment because you wish to complain that you did not get an acknowledgment you feel entitled to (and for which I have some sympathy). However, even if there were an acknowledgment (or to use your term - a canned reply) by your own argument there would be no certainty of you seeing it.

The avast team have already reported that they are working on a better mechanism - let’s give them some breathing space to show us what they will provide.

5

alanrf,
I agree with your statements. I’d like to give some additional info about why I was concerned about the email working.

When I asked avast to email the file from the virus chest, Thunderbird popped up and yelled something like “Some other application is trying to send email…Is that OK?”. At the same time avast popped up and said “Something is blocking my attempt to send the email”. So I told Thunderbird it was OK and then the avast warning disappeared (or maybe I had to say try again – I can’t remember) and then I got the “email sent” from avast. So this exchange was far from normal. Assuming that all the exception processing in Thunderbird and avast worked properly, then the email likely was sent. However, in my 30+ years of operating system software development experience, I’ve learned that if anything is going to fail it is likely to be the error handling (or exception case) code! It just doesn’t get tested enough. Maybe I’m just paranoid?

Thanks for letting me know that avast is working on a better mechanism. That’s good news!

Cheers,
Larry

6

Sorry Larry… this maybe change in the future. They use this way, probably, due to a huge number of emails received for analysis…
Like you, I would be happy if there is another way to confirm the file sending.

7

I directly emailed the file to avast (zipped and password protected) and 2 days later the file does not scan as a virus any more. So it was a false positive AND I’m more convinced than ever that emailing the file directly out of the virus chest did not work. See my details in message 5 above in this thread. So emailing files to avast directly is the way to go for me from now on.

–Larry

8

It’s true, depending in which email server you’re using it can block, for instance, .exe files to be sent.