I am using Avast Pro 6.0.1367 and was running my monthly scans. I have a Toshiba laptop P755-S5320 that is windows 7 64bit, 6G ram, fully micrsoft updated. The full Avast scan can out clean. I know I do not need to but I run the boot scan also once a month just for fun. The boot scan found two files that said were error or a compression bomb. It did not stop the scan for an action but just keep going. The two files were-- c:\Program files\Toshiba\Tosapins\Comp1\TC0021240\TC00212400G.exe and c:\Program files\Toshiba\Tosapins\Comp1\TC0039440\TC00394400F.exe. I looked and under the folder comp1 there is a long list of these files with different numbers but all starting with TC. All the files icon look like a mechanical c-clamp with some kink of block being compressed. Which leads me to believe these are some kind of Toshiba compressed system files and Avast just can not read them so that is why it said error or compression bomb. I ran scans with the latest Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, and Emsisoft AntiMalware and all came out clean. I do not want to try virus total because I did that one time with a system file like this and landed up having to do a system restore to fix the mess, also because I believe these are not a problem and Avast just is having a problem reading them. But I want to be sure and that is the reason for this post. Please tell me if I need to just forget about these being a problem or is it time to panic. If I have not supplied all information needed please tell me. Also I have a HP desktop and it came out clean on the regular scan and the boot scan. So this is only a Toshiba problem. I have had Avast for over 5 years with very few problems and read here every day but have had few reasons to post.
- Decompression Bomb, a file that is highly compressed, which could be very large when decompressed. This used to be a tactic long ago to swamp the system, also see http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=15389.msg131213#msg131213.
The name really is the most dangerous thing about this and I wish they would change it or simply not report it, a real PITA.
These highly compressed files are generally ‘archive’ files which are inert, don’t present an immediate risk until they are unpacked. If you happen to select ‘All packers’ in your on-demand scans then you are more likely to come across this type of thing; though in this case I believe these are self-extracting (.exe) files and would be scanned by default and the boot-time scan scans all archives by default.
Thanks DavidR for the quick reply. So it sound like you are saying forget about this and have a good day, am I correct?
Yes, nothing you can do about it or worry about.
Should the archive every be extracted in the normal course of using your computer then the files would be scanned by the on-access File System Shield scanner, when they are created/extracted.
Thanks for the quick help. Goodby and have a good day. Happy New Year
You’re welcome and a Happy New Year to you too.