Avast anti-virus flagging all Unity builds as virus

This just started last week: Every time I build an exe with unity Avast flags it as a virus.
Even if I build an empty scene, it still says it have a virus.

The only description Avast gives is, "FileRepMetagen [malware]".

I figure this must be a false-positive, but I've reported it to Avast over a week ago and it's still happening.

Any advice?

(This is my first post, so if you need more into, please just let me know)

 

Hi guys,

Our users are also reporting this issue (www.gladiatorsonline.com), would be awesome if one of the official Unity tech guys could reach out to Avast so they can whitelist the webplayer, after all over 300M global users should be a pretty good reason Thx in advance!

Best,
//Simon

 

Yesterday, midday Avast stopped flagging any of my executables, which is a little strange, as my virus definition normally updates at night

For whatever reason it's working fine for me now. Hopefully you'll stop getting user complaints too, Simon. You might even try asking a few users to manually update their virus definitions and see if that clears it up.

 

@mware01: Thanks a lot, we'll check with our users if it works for them as well

 

I think Avast *checks* more often than you set it to, but normal updates still come at the usual intervals. Sometimes they'll push a priority update which will appear out of the usual cycle.

 

Thanks a lot guys, seems it's no longer a problem

 

I'm having this problem in 2017. Avast's on-access scanner is twigging on Unity. Some compiled Unity projects, including completely blank ones, it flags as a Game and automatically whitelists, offering me a prompt after the executable closes to undo the whitelisting. Others, such as projects made with certain Asset Store assets, it treats as potential malware when the program is first run, and requires action by the end-user to create a security exception.

Attached, find a screenshot of the warning. This happens with the latest version of Avast Anti-virus.

 

Avast's "Hardened Mode" works on a reputation system, and blocks by default any programs with either low reputation or no reputation, requiring you to whitelist yourself. Being a new executable it would likely have no reputation (it being new and all) unless Avast finds a signature within your game that matches another game with existing reputation.

Seems to be working as designed. If you don't want Avast to block new executables by default then disable Hardened Mode. Hardened Mode is for computer novices anyway.

 

I am having this issue now recently with AVG. It flags my game as dangerous and has to scan it before it is opened for the first time.

 

My problem is a Unity game made from a completely blank scene does NOT trigger this warning. It's only certain asset store assets that cause it to happen. The vast majority of my end-users are likely to be computer novices. My concern is not an actual infection-- it's the perception of an infection in the minds of novice users.

I need to either prevent Avast from twigging on my game by understanding exactly what programming techniques cause it so the asset developers can fix it, or else by doing some kinda certification process with Avast and the other major virus makers. Not sure which is more of a hassle at this point. What's certain is ignoring it is not an option. I'm an indie. My game needs to be better than the rest to even stand a chance.

 

It is very likely that a blank scene build from Unity, which would be pretty common, would already be white listed. It sounds like that you still don't understand what "Hardened Mode" specifically does. It is not reporting that your build is a virus. Your build will only stop triggering Hardened Mode when enough Avast users white list it. That is the entire point of Hardened Mode.

Create your final build, get a few hundred to a few thousand Avast Hardened Mode users to white list it, and it will stop popping up warnings for future users.

 

This is an ongoing issue for Unity developers, I don't think Avast is trying very hard, if the executable contains networking code, Avast thinks it is malware! Do we have to pay Avast to white-list our products next, or do we just rename the executable to "turn_off_your_stupid_antivirus_if_you_want_to_play.exe"?

 

If I had "a few hundred to a few thousand users" to begin with, I wouldn't be so worried about scaring away new players, now would I?

It needs to be as flawless as possible on day one. It's the Indiepocalypse. If I can't fix this, my game's not competitive. Period.

 

Someone needs an update to their sarcasm detector. My point is that Avast Hardened Mode is designed so this is a problem for any new software - that's the entire point of enabling Hardened Mode in the first place. Enough of your users need to specifically white list your software for Avast Hardened Mode to stop flagging it.

That will require a significant user base of your game, since Avast isn't the most common anti-virus software (Windows Defender is), and Hardened Mode isn't even the default setting for Avast - Avast users have to specifically look for and enable the feature, so its likely a fairly small percentage of even Avast users that have Hardened Mode turned on.

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about it. Avast Hardened Mode users encounter this issue every time they install any relatively obscure software, not just your game.

 

Well I've got Hardened Mode turned on, that's how I noticed it in the first place. And nothing I've ever downloaded from Steam has triggered it, not even obscure indie titles. So how do I do what they did?

 

I've noticed avast being picky about unity builds on windows standalone for a long time. I don't run hardened mode either, but it seems to frequently decide the built exe is dangerous and makes me wait while scanning it, before declaring it safe.

I have often considered jumping ship from avast specifically for this annoyance.

(Not to mention the questionable practice of avast having charged several people I know money when they had supposedly never given their card info over - but that's just a conspiracy theory for now haha)

 

I still want to know what all those other indie Unity games did right to release on Steam without this problem when they have so few players.

To be honest, I recently switched to Avira. Not because of this issue, but because Avast was making my system slow. After googling it and seeing other peoples' complaints in various years and no clear workaround or fix, I decided Avast just Sucks Now. Too bad. It used to be the best. But I guess that's the PC Platform circle of life for you. Get huge by doing right what the previous king of your niche did wrong, run out of venture capital, then some bigger corporation comes along and buys you out, and starts doing new wrong things to your loyal customer base. Rinse and repeat.

 

So recently i reinstalled avast free antivirus (i uninstalled it because of some problems) and when it was installed i was greated with worse problems that i had before uninstalling it.

Before i uninstalled it i usually ran a scan one a week and completely disabled it when i wasn't using it, however for some reason in the task manager "avast service" was using 100% disk with over 60Mbps usage. i really didn't understand why so i just uninstalled it for some time.

But now after installing it agian i have the exact same issue except whenever i run a scan it asks me to buy pro if i want it to remove the virus. this has caused alot of issues (you can probably guess why) and i was just wondering if avast free antivirus just becomes a scam or if i've just completely broken avast.

I have moved to the free version of Bitdefender AV and advanced version of Bitdefender for my office work i.e Bitdefender Total security. No issues till now. Noth performing well.

 

That is really sketchy and avast shouldn't do that.

Anyway for other reasons (spammy ads all the time and odd business practices) I stopped using avast and I'm giving AVG a chance.