I have been a faithful Avast fan for many years. Our company Perry Computer Services has been installing Avast on tens of thousands of customer machines since the old ugly version 4. BUT, it worked. Over the past year I have had more annoyances with the software.
ADP accounting software false positives (Canada), and mainly SSL certificate errors with websites in assorted browsers AND email problems with SSL certificates when Avast is installed.
I have 2 fresh installs here. One a new machine. One a used laptop that needed cleaning up. Everything worked perfectly with the install as it usually does, then I installed Avast and POOF - no SSL sites working. Very odd I thought, I’ve done this same install thousands of times. Formatted, reinstalled, same thing. HUH… Weird. After hours of fiddling around figuring firefox was the problem - it was Avast. I had no idea. Anyways, to make a long story short… the problem is there. ALL windows updates are done. ALL Avast updates are done.
My other 17 computers in my own home work fine, they all have Avast installed. I remove Avast off the customer machines, SSL works. I installed AVG, the SSL websites work. I removed AVG, things still worked. I installed Avast and poof - websites are messed up.
I don’t want to switch back to AVG but this is starting to become a headache and I’m a small business so… having tens of thousands of customers calling me is not something I want. Many of them have purchased Avast.
Disabling SSL scanning is NOT an option as some people say.
If I can’t find a simple resolution to this I’m afraid it’s time to switch back. This is a headache waiting to happen as I can see thousands of complaints in the future. Just the 5 hours I’ve spent on this has caused a lot of problems. I had to postpone giving computers back for a couple of days while I figure this out.
Is this really an Avast problem and not a problem because there is Avast and emet?
A windows leak that can create problems with certificates.
If not I hope an Avast Team member comes to this thread to deliver some insight into your problem.
Both machines here are formatted, and fresh installs off disks I have used thousands of times. Everything works perfectly until I install Avast. At first I was thinking it was Firefox, a corrupt installation, the more likely scenarios.
But 2 fresh installs. 2 reproducible problems.
I have to give the laptop back tomorrow. The desktop will be early next week. Very odd behavior. Also, I tested this without installing Firefox the 2nd time I formatted and reinstalled. Thats how I narrowed it down to Avast. I’ve had issues like in the past on the odd computer but the weird thing is… it was only some websites. So, I told people… “Just click trust” since it’s obviously a trusted website (the place where they were surfing).
Beats me why my computers are working, and thousands of others, but 2 fresh installs back to back and the same problem.
If an Avast technician wants to remote control the customer machine due next week I can put it on my 2nd internet (all by itself away from my main network on the other internet) and let you Teamviewer in and do whatever you want. I’ll just wipe it again once you’re done and can see why this happens to help you narrow down the problem or cause of this?
If this is an option you want to pursue then let me know. 905-999-3590 EST.
To just narrowing the situation to what you reported…
Outside what you report, did you encounter there other behavioral signs like?:
Unauthorised connections to user accounts and computers that normally would not connect.
Activity on unexpected moments.
Several connections from one and the same account, but from various locations.
Unexpected data traffic sources and destinations.
Unexpected paths in network connections (server to server, server to client, client to client, client to server, etc).
Larger bandwidth than usual or greater file activity.
Use of rare admin-utilities.
Terminating AV-software.
Unexpected reboots.
Unexpected halts in activity.
Larger amounts of data to a location outside of the network.
Unplanned data migration at night.
Unexpected meeting of parameters of local, critical files.
Unexpected SSL/TLS-connections. *
Unexpected archive files or encrypted packets.
So no other stealth activity and no particulars from the event monitor logs.
If that is the case, then i am also very anxious to hear the real reasons from Avast team.
Remember we here are all volunteers with some relevant knowledge,
but we are no Avast Team Members.
So you have to wait for one of them to join the discussion.
polonus (volunteer website security analyst and website error-hunter)
While I was doing other things I decided to do a test in some VM’s. The first test, install Win 7 64bit and as soon as the software is done, visit SSL sites. Works. INstalled Avast. Works. WEIRD. Thats without any updates. So, tomorrow, I’m going to mimick how I do customer machines. Install Windows, do ALL the updates, then install Avast and see what happens.