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Propeller Tools Windows download page was blocked by anti-virus — Parallax Forums

Propeller Tools Windows download page was blocked by anti-virus

I was trying to download the latest Propeller Tool Software for Windows (Spin & Assembly) on this site and Avast warned me this. Is there another link I could download?

Comments

  • Downloaded fine Win10 64bit. What platform are you using?
  • MacTuxLin wrote: »
    I was trying to download the latest Propeller Tool Software for Windows (Spin & Assembly) on this site and Avast warned me this. Is there another link I could download?
    You can ask Avast to ignore its warnings & blocking of the download temporarily (until the next roboot). Look in Avast's Settings menu for the Protection TAB and then the Core Shields icon... The File & Web Shields can be turned off until a reboot. This should allow the download and execution of the setup app for the PropTool. Once installed, restart and your protection shields will be turned back on.

  • dgately wrote: »
    MacTuxLin wrote: »
    I was trying to download the latest Propeller Tool Software for Windows (Spin & Assembly) on this site and Avast warned me this. Is there another link I could download?
    You can ask Avast to ignore its warnings & blocking of the download temporarily (until the next roboot). Look in Avast's Settings menu for the Protection TAB and then the Core Shields icon... The File & Web Shields can be turned off until a reboot. This should allow the download and execution of the setup app for the PropTool. Once installed, restart and your protection shields will be turned back on.

    I agree with the gentleman wearing an odd hat and near a place started by a grouchy chap named Teller. Yes you can do all of that. I'm surprised that Avast would be that peculiar.
  • Publison wrote: »
    Downloaded fine Win10 64bit. What platform are you using?

    I'm on Windows 10 Pro 64-bit using Avast secure browser. Guess it just overly securing the users...

    Anyway, downloaded on my Linux box, transferred to my Windows machine & install .... then Avast stopped me again with this what "FileRepMalware". Should I be concern or just ignore Avast?

    900 x 937 - 56K
  • Thanks. Gonna ignore Avast.
  • MacTuxLin wrote: »
    Thanks. Gonna ignore Avast.

    Avast reports a lot of things as false positives. Tell the product that it's indeed a false positive and do what you need to.
  • I got the same exact messages from Avast when I tried to download into Win10. The only cure was to go into Avast protection page and turn off all the Shields for 10 minutes until I could download and install. After that Avast didn't make a peep running the new download.
  • I just got the same warning too, and access was blocked.
    I'm using the Work PC. And clicked to download PropTool from *NEW* website.

    Did not get the same warning downloading fro old website...
    1600 x 900 - 131K
  • Thanks for reporting this. I've submitted a false-positive report/request to Avast from the instructions and links I found in the mix of these forum threads: The last post in the last forum is the one with the best link to their reporting tool.

    Here's the exact message I sent them via their online form:
    Customers report AVG blocked our software download page in browser due to URL:Blacklist. We've rechecked our software via VirusTotal and see no cause for real concern: 1) Main executable in our installer: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/2161d88e19734b631801c88a2e497882bff43baf4a5765de65b72b02b449fe14/detection 2) Installer package: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/36f2faf8787ba9abf6d4b2d164a5cb98ce930e7917e604375ae86a2824accdda/detection Please advise.

    I gave them this URL to check related to this: https://www.parallax.com/package/propeller-tool-software-for-windows-spin-assembly-2/

    I'll await their official response after analysis via email.

  • From all of us here, all I can say is "Thank you @"Jeff Martin"!" because we did need that to be done.

    I'm still wondering why Avast would allow that to happen. We may never really know.
  • You're welcome, @"Buck Rogers"
    I'm still wondering why Avast would allow that to happen.

    Most antimalware systems now rely heavily on a profiling, heuristic, and reputation approach to try to stop new/undiscovered attacks sooner. Unfortunately, there's always collateral damage - it's kind of a guilty-until-proven-innocent kind of technique. If software/sites exhibit behaviors that happen to be similar to behaviors in previously known-malicious systems, it's flagged and blocked. For example, if the software is new, it's SHA hash hasn't been seen in the wild and so it doesn't have any reputation yet - that's "suspicious." This approach seems to extend to the executable binary's look-and-feel as well, causing false-positives sometimes from the simple use of a particular compiler, library, and installer system/techniques, etc., that happened to be used in known-malware, even if the relationship is a loose one. Some of this is conjecture: I haven't read any direct, authoritative commentary on that particular thing, but it's what all the research and indirect evidence I've come across seems to point to.

    Regarding the latter, I think we have prevented many future false-positives based on our efforts a few months ago to submit false-positive requests-for-review with leading antimalware systems, and seen their action in confirming it was false and updating their databases. It appears that many systems rely on a common malware database too, as I've seen exact or similarly-named "detections" from different systems on the same source, and once I confirmed false-positive through the biggest/widely-used antimalware system of that group, the rest automatically stopped falsely triggering within hours/days. It was amazing, and I was very thankful, to see that happen.

    By the way: I'm not faulting or complaining about the antimalware strategy, I haven't thought of a better protection mechanism, but it sure makes for an uphill battle for all the innocents. Even Apple's new centralized pre-scan + GateKeeper system in macOS Catalina+ (which I thought was both fantastic and also a pain the butt) has been thwarted by deviant minds.
  • Even Apple's new centralized pre-scan + GateKeeper system in macOS Catalina+ (which I thought was both fantastic and also a pain the butt) has been thwarted by deviant minds.

    IDK how anyone but the Suits™ at Apple thinks that's a good system - it's right in the name, it literally gatekeeps what software someone without the knowledge or ability to turn it off can run based on whether the devloper gave Apple fat stacks of cash for literally nothing.
  • AVG has apparently been fixed:
    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting AVG.

    Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused. The detection by AVG was incorrect and was removed in a recent AVG update, please wait at least 24 hours.

    If the detection persists, please reply
  • Norton does the similar warning. Win 10 x64. NORTON monitors for file replacement/modification in system areas. It specifically did not appreciate the new version messing with the existing ftdi driver. Turned off the file malware monitor, install went ok. On l y now having issue with squished together horizontally.
  • Norton does the similar warning. Win 10 x64. NORTON monitors for file replacement/modification in system areas. It specifically did not appreciate the new version messing with the existing ftdi driver. Turned off the file malware monitor, install went ok. On l y now having issue with squished together horizontally.

    Hello!
    Frank which one are you thinking of? And @"Jeff Martin" every time on the new site I try to go to downloads for the Prop 1, Chrome gives me a difficult to parse error message. Something about too many redirects. (It then wanted me to clear my cookies on it.) I did that, and it still happened. On the old site I saw the same version of the P1 tool, and the ones aimed towards the P2 designs.
  • Thank you @"Buck Rogers" I've updated the old site page (but can't add the installer there, so linked to where it can be found) and we have someone fixing the problem on the new site (should be any moment now).
  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,347
    I stopped using Avast after it destroyed my Quartus (!) installation by deleting one of its .dll files. I needed to uninstall Avast and then reinstall Quartus. Now I only use Windows Defender which is also oversensified, but not as much as Avast was.
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