BEWARE THE ANTIVIRUS!!

[keithgiannoni]

Hi all,

I've noticed there have been a number of posts since the latest GSX update where difficulties have been experienced since launching the programme with the update. I have Norton antivirus which does a great job. Some recent Norton updates have made the antivirus even more aggressive and my regular programmes have been blocked. I have set it up to allow the FSX folder, GSX, indeed everything to do with FS. Yet in the last couple of days, programmes, files and part files have been summarily dismissed to the quarantine department, including GSX!! Norton seems to find them out even after I have downloaded and  launched updates with it turned off!
 
The point of this nausea? Well, the advice in the Forums has always been to disable antivirus software. This alone may not be some of the causes of recent problems, but it is worth double checking the antivirus first and maybe once again downloading/launching the latest GSX update. Only yesterday GSX stopped working without warning. A check of the quarantine folder showed the couatl.exe file sitting sadly within!! Crazy despite my settings to allow GSX.

Regards,

Keith

[virtuali]

The point of this nausea? Well, the advice in the Forums has always been to disable antivirus software. This alone may not be some of the causes of recent problems, but it is worth double checking the antivirus first and maybe once again downloading/launching the latest GSX update. Only yesterday GSX stopped working without warning. A check of the quarantine folder showed the couatl.exe file sitting sadly within!! Crazy despite my settings to allow GSX.

So, Norton is doing a "good job" ? There's no WORSE antivirus than Norton! It's the absolute *champion* of false positives. One day, you'll be able to use only Notepad...

Here's the proof: the result of scanning the current Couatl.exe on Virustotal.com, which is a site that scans a file with MANY antivirus engines at the same time:

https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e83befb9ddfafa015ba1dd10e800b6f58bbe9c9950ec55c10e225aedbbc91285/analysis/1444918315/

As you can see, Couatl.exe is reported as SAFE by ALL 56 antivirus engines it was tested on INCLUDING Symantec! So, it seems that Norton is so defective, that it cannot even agree with *itself* if a file is safe or not.

In the file details, you can see the file is signed with a Taggant signature, which is supposed to be recognized by proper antivirus products in order NOT to catch a false positive.

The only explanation I have, is that Virustotal doesn't have heuristic enabled, and this will surely reduce the chance for false positive, and Norton relies more on its own flawed heuristic, than a proper industry-standard Taggant signature.

[keithgiannoni]

Hi,

It has done good for me as it has stopped a number of attacks. That said, the debate goes further and a little off text but ITunes can no longer update certain iPods thanks to Norton!!

My point for the post was simply to make our members aware of the hidden dangers of Norton. It may well save them long term pain!!!

Keith