What to do? VBS:Malware-gen spotted by Avast!

Joined
Feb 18, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi to anyone reading.
Excuse me for possible errors in technical vocabulary, english is not my native language.

I have a Mac OS X 10.6.8. that I bought new in 2010.
Yesterday while downloading a photo to my facebook-account, the service blocked me out and noted, that my account was shut temporarily and that I should first run some virus detection or such. I got a bit scared as that had never before happened. I searched some forums for answers.

Finally I downloaded Avast! antivirus for mac, and run a full system scan, that run about 3 hours last night. This morning I checked the report: It had spotted a great deal of warnings, over a hundred, including "decompression bombs", but mostly "archive is corrupted" -warnings. Many of them were located in Users/.../library/Mail/IMAP-... with my email address in gmail, but also in aplications and other places. Besides that Avast! had spotted two VBS:Malware-gens named "Autorun.inf". I even remember those files from the past. They were on the desktop, and I tried to move them, but it was difficult to just relocate them. If I remember correct, I had to use computer password. I thought that they were something from the mac so I didn't try to delete them.

Now today with Avast! I tried to delete them, and it succeeded with only the other one of the gens. Also I am afraid that I have copied the malware-gens to my external hard drive that I use for time-machine.

As you can see, I'm not exactly a pro with computers. I appreciate any piece of advice put in a simple form. ..Or if someone knows where I should ask about this, or links to previous conversations or others sites concerning the subject. What should I do, and is there some way to check if the malwares have caused some problems that continue to exist and work after deleting the malwares.

I use my laptop alot in my work. Sometimes I save web pages as web archives for research purposes, also I admit to have sometimes downloaded some applications after a light research of the service provider. This incident will certainly make me more careful in downloading.
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,745
Reaction score
2,071
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Those are all false positives from avast. The autorun.inf file is used in Windows to launch applications by default. The message you got about being blocked is not real, it's there to scare you. Ire you search the forums, there was another post recently about this exact same problem with more discussion..
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
What should you do? Step one use the uninstaller and get rid of Avast!

If you feel you must have AV software protection, bearing in mind there are no Mac OS X viruses, download and use ClamXAV. It is freeware and non intrusive.

http://www.clamxav.com
 
OP
F
Joined
Feb 18, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
So many thanks for these replies!! They helped!

...For me it seems just so stupid, all these false alarms and scaring people.

Cheers!
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,745
Reaction score
2,071
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Unfortunately scare tactics work. A lot of people will on instinct go and download whatever app is being displayed, this is how MacKeeper makes all of its sales. A little bit of education will help a lot of people avoid throwing their money away..
 
Joined
Feb 22, 2017
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Wait a second...

So I had this problem... but without giving it a second thought, I deleted all the 23 odd files it said were viruses. Could this harm my system in anyway..?
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
1,774
Reaction score
81
Points
48
Location
York, UK
Your Mac's Specs
iMac: 5K 27” (2020), 3.3 GHz, 32Gb RAM. iPad2, iPad mini4, iPhone 13 Mini, Apple Watch SE
You definitely have something on your computer that you don't need. It's called Avast.
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
10,703
Reaction score
1,158
Points
113
Location
Rhode Island
Your Mac's Specs
M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rdGen, iPhone 13 ProMax, Watch S7, 2018 15" MBP, AirPods Pro

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
So I had this problem... but without giving it a second thought, I deleted all the 23 odd files it said were viruses. Could this harm my system in anyway..?

Welcome to our forums.

The harm could possibly be that you deleted 23 files that were needed by valid programs. You'll just have to wait and see. We warn folks over and over to NOT run any anti-virus programs on their Macs unless it's required by an employer or learning institution.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top