Problem with downloading QQ Instant Messenger Setup File

Greetings,

In the process of downloading QQ Instant Messenger, I got a warning from my Avast! anti-virus software telling me to abort the connection. Is this a problem with Avast! Pro 4.8, or does QQ really have a trojan/virus? I saw some previous forum posts on QQ and potential conflicts with Avast! and I thought that this was supposed to be addressed in Avast! version 4.8…or am I misinformed? Just wondering whether it is safe to ignore the warning and download the setup file for QQ or forget it all together. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

The download site for QQ: http://im.qq.com/qq/mo.shtml?/download/qqe.shtml

I would say it is probably safe to ignore the warning, unfortunately that won’t allow you to use the program as avast won’t let a file it believes is infected to run no matter how many times you tell it to ignore it.

You have to send a sample of the offending file to avast for it to analyse and correct the signature if it is a false positive, as you will no doubt have seen in the other topics. You will have seen that this is a continual issue as it seems if there are any changes in the QQ version it gets detected again. It was addressed several times, but has nothing to do with what avast version, it is the virus signatures and you don’t say what the malware name was ?

Pausing the web shield would at least enable you to download it but then the standard shield would alert, no action at that point would leave it in the location, but still not allow it to run.

You could also check the offending/suspect file at: VirusTotal - Multi engine on-line virus scanner and report the findings here. You can’t do this with the file securely in the chest, you need to extract it to a temporary (not original) location first, see below.

Create a folder called Suspect in the C:\ drive, e.g. C:\Suspect. Now exclude that folder in the Standard Shield, Customize, Advanced, Add, type (or copy and paste) C:\Suspect* That will stop the standard shield scanning any file you put in that folder. You should now be able to export any file in the chest to this folder and upload it to VirusTotal without avast alerting.

If it is indeed a false positive, see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=34950.msg293451#msg293451, how to report it to avast! and what to do to exclude them until the problem is corrected.

Thank you very much for all of the information David! It helped me a lot. I’ll follow through on this as per your instructions.

I have heard from a few people that QQ messenger contains malware, is this true, false or a misinterpretation?

the reason I ask is that if a lot of people use things that they know contain malware but because they cant do without the software or have friends who also use it (ie peer pressure) then I’m worried that it could force companies such as Alwil to bow to pressure to allow them to work without warning of there dangers or installation, can someone clarify these points please?

ps I am not trying to argue or anything just curious as to where companies like Alwil stand on the issue

No problem, glad I could help.

Welcome to the forums.