Warning from Avast???

I am suddenly receiving E-Mails with a notification in the header that says; “WARNING virus check bypassed”. Nothing bad has happened so far but this is the first time I have seen this. Could someone explain what this message means?

Where are you seeing this warning?
Are you sure it is from avast?

What OS do you have?
What email program are you using?
Do you have scanning enabled for inbound emails in the avast email scanner?
Do you have any other security related programs that may also be scanning you email?

I too am receiving warnings (virus check bypassed) Then on good emails, it removes the attachment and tells me it is the W32Soberworm-AB.

I am using IE 6.0 and Outlook Express. I believe I have scanning for both inbound and outbound E-mails but frankly am not sure how to find out. I have checked options and security in OE as well as my Avast but am at a loss as to how to find this. The warnng I listed above comes in on the subject line of the E-Mail but not every one. Avast is picking up viruses as it notified me of the recent E-Bay one that is going around.

Unless avast has changed the Warning writen on the subject line I don’t recognise this.

If your settings are the same as in the image above, avast should be checking the inbound email.
The avast Indernet Mail detailed view would show the Last Email scanned and the Scanned total: should also increase if they are being scanned. The email headers should also show they are being scanned, check the email properties, right click on an email in the list of emails and select properties, details tab, Message Source. You should see something like this:

X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 0548-0, 29/11/2005), Inbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean

Me either… I think I haven’t translated a message like this and I’m quite sure it’s not written this way in avast.

When I check “properties” for a message it shows as above that it was checked by Avast and is clean. Is it possible that these incoming messages that carry this warning have nothing to do with Avast but something to do with the senders E-Mail virus program?

If JackB has something like Schoolmaster says they have, here is some info about the Sober Virus. Don’t mean to clog up the post but this might be usefull.
"
VIRUS ALERT=W32.Sober.x@mm virus alert.

This is one of the fastest spreading viruses in a long time. It’s clever - it uses subject lines like:

Your IP was logged
You visit illegal websites
Your Password
Registration Confirmation
smtp mail failed
Mail delivery failed
hi, ive a new mail address
Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie
The first two subject lines listed above have a “from” address of either @fbi.gov or CIA.gov. The body tells you that you’ve been on illegal websites and you need to fill out the attached questionnaire (or something to that effect).

The other e-mails are equally clever and try to trick people into running the .zip attachment to get their “password”, “registration”, “Paris Hilton”, or whatever.

When you run the zip attachment, you’ll get an error message and the virus will infect your computer. From there, it will start mass e-mailing every address it can find and attempt to manipulate your AV software.

For example, if Norton is installed, it tries to override the Live Update feature. Once in control, if Live Update is run, one of these message boxes will come up:

Thank you for using LiveUpdate. All of the Symantec products
and components are currently up-to-date.

OR

No Connection!

Either way, that’s the virus talking, not Live Update. Clever huh?

Finally, if you’re still infected on Jan 5, 2006, the virus will attempt to download and run a malicious file that does who-knows-what to your computer.

So, if you haven’t updated your virus definitions lately, now would be a good time.

If you suspect you’re infected, Symantec has a handy removal tool at their website (along with more info on this worm):"
This is from the=W32.Sober.x@mm virus alert.

That is what I have been saying all along, if avast was detecting this as a virus you would know, very loud alert and warning pop-up displayed.
If as the message said “WARNING virus check bypassed” that couldn’t possibly have been put into the message subject if in fact it had bypassed avast.
Especially when as you have checked the headers and seen that it was scanned by avast.

This could only mean that it has come from another source, ISP email server (if the “WARNING virus check bypassed” is in the headers and not the Subject as I mentioned) or the senders end. Do you know who sent the email?

Yes, I know who sent the majority of the E-Mails. Most of them seem to be concentrated in a small group involved with my wifes Symphony Society.

Please check the message headers and see if they have the X-Antivirus headers…

There does seem to be something to this message. I’m sure it doesn’t come from avast!. The only site I could find anything on this was http://www.experts-exchange.com/ . On their security page ,( http://www.experts-exchange.com/Security/Q_21511900.html )the same question is asked. However clicking on “view solution” brings up a security warning box about a problem with their cerificate. Not knowing anything about this web site I chose to leave well enough alone.

Having said that, some one out their must have come across this before or knows about this site.

Best of luck

The folks over at mcafeehelp are also scratching their heads. It was first reported in September, however no solution. :cry:

Heard from a poster on another forum, that the above mentioned site is a trusted site. The solution posted there (on that site) is that the message may be from the sender. It is not from your AV.

Reading from this, I think it is posible, that for whatever reason, their AV was disabled or the mail was sent unscanned.

Oh well back to head scratching!! ???

Edited to add

Here’s a copy of their solution

Assisted Answer from war1
Date: 08/01/2005 02:13PM PDT
Grade: A
Assisted Answer

It could be anti-virus on your friend’s end. You can casually ask your friend what anti-virus scanner he or she uses.

Accepted Answer from sunray_2003
Date: 08/01/2005 02:48PM PDT
Grade: A
Accepted Answer

Hi cornell256,

Try to see if you can find any info about the anti-virus program by checking the email header of the email from the person who sent you this email.
If you are not getting this message from anyone else , probably it is only from the user who sent you…

May be the mail server that the user is sending is doing this.

SR…

And maybe that’s all there is to it! ;D ;D

Which is basically what I was saying (in a round about way, check with the sender).

This could only mean that it has come from another source, ISP email server (if the "WARNING virus check bypassed" is in the headers and not the Subject as I mentioned) or the senders end. Do you know who sent the email?

Whilst this is still a mystery, you can be assured it isn’t from avast if avast sends a warning, make no mistake you will know about it.