Slack.com is now blocked after the 2015 update

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I use Slack.com for enhanced team-chat.
After the 2015 update Slack is now blocked.

Turn of shields → Works perfect…
Turn on shileds → No connection…

Slack itself told me to whitelist: *.slack-msgs.com

But how do I do that?

(Hope I made the problem clear)

2

Sorry for bumping, but maybe I need to make myself more clear.

I just need to know how to whitelist a service like slack.com?

It was working before the Avast2015 update and is working again if I drop the shields temporarly…

3

Hm, i’m working with some playtester devs on Slack and it seems to work fine with HTTPS enabled (in Firefox 33.0.1).

4

I have tested it in IE and Chrome (both worked before the 2015 update) and both were unable to connect.
They run in https btw.

5

Actually you are right. I missed that because I got my older entries displayed and i thought everything works fine. But with HTTPS enabled, it just keeps reconnecting (retrying) forever. If i turn off HTTPS it reconnects instantly into the message channel.

6

Can we figure out a solution?

7

Hi NotSoHappy,

Your not the only one having problems with the HTTPs module.

I alerted Avast to the problem on the day Avast 2015 launched. Upon providing my logs to the devs I was informed they had found the bug which is in the HTTPs module of the anti-virus. It seems this module isn’t sending any data across. This has affected me personally with spotify (however others have reported that there’s no problem with there installs.)

Avast is working on a fix, No ETA as of yet… As soon as i hear back from them Ill let you know what’s going on.

Thanks
Oliver

8

this type of problem is also occuring with play.spotify.com, an endless loop due to the HTTPs praiser.

9

There were more users reporting blocked website chat programs, not only this one, could be a particular script code being blocked or another issue. These issues should be reviewed/taken up by someone from avast team, and we are not, just volunteers with some relevant knowledge. Consider: http://jsunpack.jeek.org/?report=d7593fb9710b4854ebe05dc6b75cee64f2d1eb5a
Above link is for security research only, open up in browser with NoScript extension active and in a VM/sandbox (Malzilla) or on a lab settings machine.
So report the issue here to virus@avast.com. Code detected may reside here, RE: https://www.virustotal.com/nl/domain/slack.global.ssl.fastly.net/information/ (FLASH FALLBACK?) or a FP?

polonus

@RejZoR,

There are also redirections found that try to connect to https and go through http first and then try to connect to https.
Sometimes chrome won’t handle them as with too many redirect loops.

D

10

WORKING SOLUTION: (tested and confirmed for Slack.com)

  1. Open the avast! user interface and and click the ‘SETTINGS’ tab from the pane on the left
  2. A new window for ‘Settings’ will appear. From the left pane choose ‘Active protection’. You can see a list of shields available in avast! antivirus.
  3. Click on the sprocket-wheel symbol next to the Web shield. A new window ‘Web shield settings’ will appear.
  4. Click on the ‘Exclusion’ tab on the left. You can modify the list of URLs, MIME types and processes which will not be scanned.
  5. Click an empty field under the proper list (or click the ‘Add’ button under the list) and type the WWW address, MIME type, or browse for the path to the file which should be excluded from scanning.
  6. Click ‘OK’ to confirm changes.