Tor bookmarks being blocked by Avast

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I turned on the Tor browser this morning and noticed my bookmarks had disappeared. There was this message at the top of the browser;

The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Tor Browser's files is in use by another application. Some security software can cause this problem.

Looking online someone had previous issues with avast in this situation and discovered it was indeed avast blocking it. So I turned off all shields to avast and reloaded tor and all the bookmarks reappeared.

I then re-enabled all shields and the error message re-appeared and the bookmarks vanished.

I’m using;

Tor Browser 9.5.4

Avast Application (Ver. 20.6.2420 - Build 20.6.5495.588)
Virus update (Ver. 200827-2)

Update: It’s back working now.

2

I updated the Avast application version last night to the latest release and the Tor bookmark issue is back.

So Tor Browser version 9.5.4

Avast Application (Ver. 20.7.2425 - Build 20.7.5568.590)
Virus update (Ver. 200902-0)

Update: Odd, its now back working. Strange stuff.

3

Well it’s back doing this again.

I recently updated the Avast application.

Avast application: ver. 20.8.2432 - build 20.8.5684.602
Virus definitions: ver. 201018-2

I suspect its something in the updates that keep causing this. Also the mini updates too.

So far since updating to application its stopping tor browser working properly.

Does anyone know why it keeps doing this?

4

Hi, I’m not aware of any problems regarding TOR browser.

  • Which Avast…? (Free/Premium)
  • OS…? (32/64 Bit…? - which SP/Build…?)
  • Other security related software installed…?
  • Which AV(s) did you use before Avast…?
5

It’s the free version of Avast.

64bit, Professional. 2004 Version (OS Build 19041.572)
The only other software I use similar is the free version of Malwarebytes.

But this is definately an Avast problem because if I disable the shields Tor’s bookmarks load up correctly.

Sometimes when I have avast running it’ll cause the bookmarks problem, and then later on it’ll work perfectly again.

This only happens with the Tor browser. It doesn’t effect my other web browsers.

6

You can submit a bug report in “About Avast”. (Add a link to this thread)

7

Hmm, I can’t find that page on my free version.

I’ve noticed since I updated the program it’s blocking the tor bookmarks all the time. In the previous program it seemed to change between blocking and not blocking.

8

Right click the tray icon and select “About Avast”.

9

Asyn beat me to it.

10

Thanks guy, I found it.

Today I thought the issue fixed itself as Avast and Tor played nicely.

Then I noticed there was a Tor browser update, so I selected it and it restarted the browser and now its back to the bookmark problem again. This new tor browser version is 10.0.2

11

You’re welcome.

12

This still seems to be an on-going issue.

I report the bug and it gets fixed. But when I update Tor the exact same problem happens again.

When Tor bookmarks are being blocked by Avast the only way to fix it is to disable the Avast shields, load up Tor, then re-enable the shields.

13

Update to the latest version (20.10.2442): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=243196.0

14

I know i am too late for this, but i am going to say it for the next coming people who will read this post: -
I found out that the problem was with Ransomware Shield by testing every shield one by one, it was blocking firefox.exe which is in “Tor Browser\Browser”, go to Ransomeware Shield settings and click on “View allowed / blocked apps” and unblock firefox.exe .

15

Thanks mate.

I was on my way back to the thread as it still randomly blocks the bookmarks.

I just did as you said and it seems to have worked.

It seems that for whatever reason Avast keep adding, then removing it from the ransomware shield.

Thank you for your work in tracking down what the issue is.