Dear Avast Antivirus,
Please don't hesitate to reach out next time if you need any advice figuring out what to do with these brilliant pranks.
Rest assured that the time I *invested* today investigating this issue and calming some of your ex-clients has made my day.

Remember, non-techie Windows users really appreciate this sense of humor in antivirus programs

MakeUseOf: A Popular Antivirus App Was Caught Selling Your Data: Here’s How to Apply for a Refund. “Almost 3.7 million people are now eligible to collect some cash from Avast, a popular antivirus software company that stole and sold customer data for years. Here’s what you need to know if you bought any Avast products in the last decade.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/02/26/a-popular-antivirus-app-was-caught-selling-your-data-heres-how-to-apply-for-a-refund-makeuseof/

The rise of viruses led to antivirus, and the rise of malware to internet security. The next extra app and service you get to look forward to could come from identity theft. https://www.pickr.com.au/news/2025/identity-protection-set-to-become-yet-another-app-you-might-need #news #security #software #avast #identification #internetsecurity

I just replied to a blog comment, and I thought that I post my reply here as well:

I think that I have good reasons to be “against Avast,” having published seven articles on them so far. The security issues alone are bad enough. But Avast abused their position to collect and sell users’ browsing profiles. After they were caught they claimed the data to be anonymized, they claimed to only sell aggregated data – and they continue lying to this day, despite there being conclusive evidence to the contrary. While the company has been bought, it’s still the same people in charge. This sort of undermines any trust in them for anything related to security.

As the security of antivirus software goes, I’m not very fond of any as the articles in the “antivirus” category of my blog show. With Kaspersky it wasn’t only the security issues but also how they handled them, pushing out half-hearted fixes only for these to be circumvented shortly afterwards. McAfee and BullGuard had massive security issues stemming from being careless about security and not following best practices.

I’ve found a critical security issue in Bitdefender’s solution as well, but with them I at least had the impression that they were trying. Unfortunately, that’s currently the bar in the antivirus industry – at least trying to make their product secure.

Security-wise, one good thing about Windows Defender is that it only needs to do one job. It doesn’t need all the extra functionality as a selling argument. It doesn’t need to be a banking browser, it doesn’t need to be a phishing protection, it only needs to be an antivirus solution. It can keep a very small attack surface compared to all those antivirus suites, and so it does (yes, I checked).

Hackers abuse #Avast anti-rootkit driver to disable defenses

A new malicious campaign is using a legitimate but old and vulnerable Avast Anti-Rootkit driver to evade detection and take control of the target system by disabling security components.

The malware that drops the driver is a variant of an AV Killer of no particular family. It comes with a hardcoded list of 142 names for security processes from various vendors.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-abuse-avast-anti-rootkit-driver-to-disable-defenses/

A new malicious campaign is using a legitimate but old and vulnerable #Avast Anti-Rootkit driver to evade detection and take control of the target system by disabling security components. #CyberAttacks
#CyberSecurity https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-abuse-avast-anti-rootkit-driver-to-disable-defenses/

Attackers abuse #Avast anti-rootkit driver to disable defenses https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-abuse-avast-anti-rootkit-driver-to-disable-defenses/ @BleepingComputer #malware #cybersecurity #infosec

Man kann gegen #Avast sagen, was man will...
Aber diese Auswahl finde ich immer wieder sooo kreativ!

Eine Frage an meine EDV-Bubble (ja, PC, Microsoft, AscheaufmeinHaupt)
Gibt es ein Computerschutzprogramm (Virenalarm, Festplattenscan, Aufräumen, nass durchwischen…), das ich einmal kaufe und dann ist gut?
Mich nervt, dass ich bei meinen immer tausende „Leistungsprobleme“ und Gefahren angezeigt bekomme - und gebeten werde, das Programm upzugraden.
Das ist mir unsympathisch - auch wenn es vielleicht notwendig wäre. Versteht ihr mein persönliches Problem mit Kundenfang?
#edv #PC #Avast #Avira #rt

What #AntiVirus are you guys using?
I've uninstalled #avast a few months ago, used Windows Defender for a while now, but honestly it's kinda going on my nerves, how it behaves and the UI.
I don't like These huge anti Virus Providers which just have a Million functions I don't even care About. I don't Need vpn, Password Manager, game mode, or anything. I just Need protection against stupid viruses.
Anything thin and small you could recommend, or at least something which could fit my Needs? I mean, that it shouldn't slow down your entire System like Avast does is clear I Guess.
thanks for your recommendations.

Norton relies on Avast scan engine

The number of malware scan engines is falling again. Protection software from the Norton brand now also uses the Avast engine.

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Norton-relies-on-Avast-scan-engine-9866215.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm_source=mastodon

Norton setzt auf Avast-Scan-Engine

Die Zahl an Malware-Scan-Engines sinkt erneut. Schutzsoftware der Norton-Marke nutzt nun auch die Avast-Engine.

https://www.heise.de/news/Norton-setzt-auf-Avast-Scan-Engine-9866036.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm_source=mastodon

My #avast subscription expired a few day's ago and I don't plan to renew it at all. That mean's I can no longer use it's build in vpn. Therefore, I'm searching a new #VPN which is simular to the one from avast. Nothing fancy. I want to have an accessible client, be able to connect do different servers, just to hide my IP or set my IP to other country's, and to hide which websites I'm visiting from some networks I need to use. Can anyone recommend me something price worth?

I wonder why #Avast thinks my subscription will expire in 30 days when I canceled it last January and got a refund? Hovering over the links show the message really was from Avast.
Oh, the mysteries in life.

Včera jsem odinstaloval Avast ze svého Macbooku a něco takového už nesmí zpět!

Placená verze (a ne úplně levná) mi neustále prodává další a další funkce, o které nestojím a už jsem odklikl, že o ně nestojím.

O tom, že mi to blokuje síťový provoz, ale už mi neříká, proč a na základě čeho, ani nemluvím.

Zkoušel jsem to, ale nemám na to nervy a zrušil jsem i předplatné.

FudModule: Ausgefeiltes Rootkit gräbt sich tief in Windows ein
#Cyberangriffe #ITSicherheit #Avast #CVE202438193 #FudModule #Hacker #Lazarus #WindowsSicherheit https://sc.tarnkappe.info/00e236

In the 1st of a 3 part series, @izobashi & @NZubrisky detail link following bugs. How they work, what vendors do to prevent them, and how researchers can bypass protections to exploit them. Includes examples from recent 0-days in #Avast. https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2024/7/29/breaking-barriers-and-assumptions-techniques-for-privilege-escalation-on-windows-part-1

It has been a while since I’ve written about Avast, so today I give you “How insecure is Avast Secure Browser?”

https://palant.info/2024/07/15/how-insecure-is-avast-secure-browser/

Note: This isn’t a vulnerability disclosure, merely an overview of problematic design decisions.

TL;DR from the article: I wouldn’t run Avast Secure Browser on any real operating system, only inside a virtual machine containing no data whatsoever.

Some highlights:

• Eleven pre-installed browser extensions but only two visible to users.
• Two extensions unnecessarily relax Content-Security-Policy protection.
• One of these two extensions also requesting all privileges possible, despite not actually using them.
• Two extensions accept messages from any other extension and any Avast website, the latter without enforcing HTTPS connections.
• One of these extensions, Privacy Guard (sic!), will expose information about your browser’s tabs via that messaging interface and provide updates as you browse the web.
• The “onboarding” experience is designed as an extremely flexible way to nag you into using products that benefit Avast financially.
• To make this “onboarding” work, the browser exposes internal APIs to a number of Avast domains that a huge number of third parties can put content on. Not only can each of these third parties abuse this access, a single XSS vulnerability will extend the access to any website on the internet (no effective CSP protection).

Enjoy!

#Avast released a decryptor for #DoNex #Ransomware and its predecessors
https://securityaffairs.com/165469/malware/donex-ransomware-decryptor.html
#securityaffairs #hacking