r/antivirus • • Feb 22 '24

MOD POST [MOD POST] LIST OF TOP MESSAGES, NEWS + IMPORTANT INFO

15 Upvotes

Hello,

Welcome to r/antivirus's new top-level Announcements post. Since Reddit has a limit of two (2) stickied announcements per subreddit, this will be a way to provide links to important information like announcements about new rules and moderators, activities in the subreddit, and so forth. If you are new to r/antivirus, please take a quick look at them. You can even take a look if you are not new here.

DISCUSSION DATE POSTED DATE LAST REVISED
[MOD POST] New rules, staying safe, and an update from your Mod Team 2025-JUN-03 -
[MOD POST] We're back in business! and an update on automod rules 2024-MAR-11 -
News & Updates from your r/Antivirus Mod Team, Q1 2024 Edition 2024-MAR-04 -
Updates & News from the r/Antivirus Mod Team, Autumn 2023 Edition 2023-OCT-04 -
Notes from your Moderators (Summer Edition) 2022-JUL-08 -
Quick Note from the mod team about spam 2021-JUN-01 -
To the people asking for opinions on a specific file 2020-JUL-05 2020-JUL-05

Additionally, the r/antivirus subreddit operates a bit differently than other subreddits you might be familiar with and normally use. Here are some tips and tools to help you use it.

  • The subreddit has a wiki that is regularly updated with answers to commonly-asked questions. Check it out. The answer to your question may already be in there.

  • Asking a question about a report on a file or website from a service like Hybrid Analysis, MetaDefender, Triage, or VirusTotal? You must include the actual link to it and not just a screenshot, or your post will be removed.

  • Be kind to each other and be professional in your conduct here. Personal attacks will not be tolerated and will be dealt with appropriately.

  • Do not ask for copies of hacking tools, malware, or suspicious files. If someone sends you a chat request or private message asking for a file or offering assistance based on what you posted here, report them to Reddit and notify the mods.

  • Do not post direct links to malicious, suspect, or potentially unsafe files or web sites.

  • Follow Reddiquette. This means correctly upvoting and downvoting posts, and reporting posts with dangerous or unsafe advice to the mods.

  • If you work for a vendor of security products, services, or in a related field, you must identify yourself as such, either in the post or with flair. Also, you may not steer conversations to your products or services, only respond to posts about them to clarify or defend.

  • No low-effort, off-topic, spam, or meme posts. This includes AI/ChatGPT/LLM-generated text, questions about password manager or VPNs, requests for assistance with non-security related software like autoclickers or MP3 downloaders, and so forth.

  • No requests for assistance with pirated software or media.

  • Posts may be removed and threads closed at any time based on the moderators' discretion

The complete list of rules for the subreddit can be found here. Read them before posting.

Questions, comments, feedback on this post? Just reply here. Thank you.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
(on behalf of the r/antivirus mod team)


r/antivirus • • Jun 04 '25

[MOD POST] New rules, staying safe, and an update from your Mod Team

6 Upvotes

[UPDATE #1 (20250604-0916 GMT): Made some small updates to grammar for readability. ^AG]

Hello,

It has been about a year since our last Mod Post, so we wanted to give you an update on things, plus provide a dedicated message thread for discussing the state of the r/antivirus subreddit and to answer any questions that you might have.

We will begin with the toughest subject first, that of politics in the subreddit:

A note about politics

r/antivirus is a technology-focused subreddit, with the interest being in helping people protect their computers from malicious software, securing them after a security incident, and so forth.

In June 2024, the US Government enacted a ban on Kaspersky Lab's software, taking effect in October of that year. This has generated a lot of discussion not just in this subreddit, but across Reddit and numerous social media platforms as well.

The moderation team has tried to keep the political discussions about this out of this subreddit and to remain neutral, allowing Kaspersky Lab's customers to ask and answer each other questions, provide assistance to each other, and generally have a way to share information, tips and tricks with each other.

However, we do have to draw a line when these turn into political discussions, though:

Requests for how to circumvent bans, petitions to governments, etc., are clearly outside the scope of what this subreddit is for and will be removed.

Moderating the subreddit is an all-volunteer job, and we sometimes miss things. If you come across any political messages we may have missed, use the subreddit's report function to notify us.

We are doing our best to keep this a place where people can get help with whatever security software they prefer, including Kaspersky Lab's software. However, we cannot allow discussions to devolve into arguments over politics, which are never going to provide any kind of satisfactory answer to the parties involved.

If the political discussions continue, the moderation team will have to look into ways to prevent them, even if it means doing things which we would prefer not to do.

Rules Updates

The rules of the r/antivirus subreddit have been updated:

Rule #7, which previously covered media download tools, has been updated to cover additional types of software.
To begin with, a more general prohibition to cover autoclickers (previously covered under Rule #8) and some other types of tools like aimbots and cheats. These types of tools often come from random sources and often require expert analysis to determine if they are safe. It can be difficult to determine if they are malicious figuring that out requires examining not just the tool, but whatever program it is attempting to modify, and what the intent is behind that modification.
Just because something was recommended in a Discord server with hundreds of members, a YouTube video with tens of thousands of views, or is seeded by several hundreds peers does not mean that it is safe to use: These are all inherently unsafe sources, and criminals will often exploit the belief that these are trusted sources to trick people into downloading and running malicious programs like information stealers and remote access trojans.

Rule #8 has been amended to remove autoclickers (etc.) since that is now covered under Rule #7.

Two new rules have been added:

Rule #9 covers bypassing core security features. Questions about how to disable security software, operating system updates, bypass security features and so forth are not allowed.

Rule #10 covers requesting assistance with obsolete software and hardware. This means discussions about how to secure computers running Windows XP, Windows 7, etc. are not allowed. There is no reason that devices running these obsolete operating systems should be connected to the internet and doing so exposes everyone to risk. Note that questions involving Windows 10 will continue to be allowed until at least October 2028, when paid-for Extended Security Updates for it end.

A bit more on the rules

The list of rules is not meant to be exhaustive in scope. It provides a general listing of common rules that are more specific to and more frequently required by the r/antivirus subreddit when needed beyond Reddit's general rules and guidelines.

Moderators can and will remove posts and ban redditors, either temporarily or permanently, who are disruptive to the subreddit entirely at their discretion and are not subject to any discussion. If a moderator chooses to discuss a rule violation with you, it is entirely as a courtesy on their part.

If you have had a post removed or been banned from the subreddit and do not receive a response in reply to any questions as to why, ask yourself if your behavior could be interpreted as brigading, spamming, trolling, using disrespectful or offensive language, or consistently providing incorrect, low-quality, poor, or even damaging information.

As always, the latest version of the rules can be found at https://old.reddit.com/r/antivirus/about/rules/. If you have questions about them, ask below.

Getting help fast

The moderation team is seeing an increasing trend where people ask for help while providing no information about what they need help with. This includes titles with 1-3 words like "Urgent! Help needed!", posts where the author shares a screenshot of *something* with no information about the operating system or antivirus involved, or is so small/blurry as to be unreadable, etc.

Everybody who participates regularly in this subreddit volunteers their time for free to do so. Provide them with enough information in your first post so they can start helping you right away without having to ask a lot of questions. This means your first post should contain things like:

  • title with enough information to attract an expert to read it
  • operating system and version
  • brand/name of antivirus software
  • name of URL, or file and its location
  • name of malware that was detected
  • what happened, exactly
  • steps you have taken to troubleshoot/diagnose so far, if any
  • relevant log file entries, if any

The more information you provide, the quicker you will get your problem solved.

As a reminder, starting multiple posts on the same topic will not get you a faster answer, and may result in in a ban.

The wiki + other Reddit resources

There is a lot of great information in the wiki about all the tools you can use, tips for using them, lists of antivirus vendors and how to contact them, and even a section on how to secure your computer.

We frequently update the wiki in response to questions being regularly asked in the subreddit, so you might want to check there first before posting.

Some of the questions we regularly see in the subreddit have nothing to do with computer viruses or malicious software at all, but instead are about scams, privacy-related questions, and so forth. Here are some subreddits that specialize in answering those types of questions:

New moderators?!

As the subreddit grows (we just passed 100K users), so does the need for additional moderators.

The moderation team has been looking at the folks who have been regularly posting here and consistently given good advice to build a list of candidates, and will be reaching out over the next few weeks to see if any are willing to volunteer their time and expertise in the subreddit. There will be more coming on that, but I did want to let everyone know that the process is already underway.


That pretty much covers everything we wanted to discuss, so we'll now await your questions, below.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
(on behalf of the r/antivirus mod team)


r/antivirus • • 2h ago

PRODUCT RECOMMENDATION What is your opinion of ESET anti-virus?

5 Upvotes

What is your opinion of ESET anti-virus? I am looking for alternatives to McAfee.


r/antivirus • • 3h ago

Mr Beast Scam

2 Upvotes

So a couple weeks ago, I downloaded a game, I shouldn't have (I believe it was the renPy infostealer), I was told I had sent people the Mr Beast crypto thing on discord, so I changed my password on a clean device, nuked my pc, changed passwords on everything, enable 2fa on everything, etc. Even after doing all this, I'm getting calls, saying they want to do a fraud check (this was obviously not from my bank so I didn't answer back). I had a text message as well, telling me my last few purchases, including a steam transaction I didn't make. So I checked my actual bank account, froze my card, and the steam transaction wasn't there. I'm just wondering if this is still the renPy attack, and how can I stop all this from continuing to happen. And yes, I've learnt my lesson about downloading games online.


r/antivirus • • 7h ago

Computer Illiterate. Need Help

Post image
5 Upvotes

I went into a website from a google search (2nd option website is called roucet.-c-o-m). As soon as I got into the site, i realized I fucked up and clicked out. Now these popups (attached) keep popping up from my windows notification center.

Any advice much appreciated


r/antivirus • • 25m ago

Bitdefender resolved this what is this? Was doing a fullscan in bitdefender and it resolved this and deleted it " Appdate\\local\\google\\chrome\\user data \\ defult\\Cache\_data\\f\_00066a=>(gzip)=> ( INFECTED\_JS) " so what is it ,m

• Upvotes

r/antivirus • • 43m ago

INDUSTRY NEWS Microsoft Releases Microsoft Defender For The Linux Desktop

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phoronix.com
• Upvotes

Microsoft's newest software release for Linux is... Microsoft Defender for the Linux desktop. Microsoft Defender has been ported to Linux to "secure Linux desktops" with Microsoft acknowledging that "more developers begin to use Linux desktops" and thus bringing their security application and threat-protection product to Linux desktops to complement their prior ill-used Linux server support.


r/antivirus • • 7h ago

Requesting FRST Assistance for Potential Infostealer

3 Upvotes

Hello, I downloaded a graphic novel file that was tagged with a false file extension .cbz.exe extracted from a .cbz.7z using Winrar. And I ended up running the false exe file multiple times by double clicking (im pretty certain). My laptop is potentially infected in what I can only assume is an infostealer since running the file didnt result in anything so far.

This chain of events occurred around 5pm~7pm (gmt +8) on 15 Oct.

For what I did for remediation, I performed an offline scan with MS Defender, then downloaded MalwareBytes for a separate scan which flagged four files that were false positives (image in comments). I did end up deleting a few local temp files around the inception of this fiasco, but I restored them for the scan assuming it might help in any way.

**Keywords**

fabled-lily (Frst.txt)

stoic-scout (Addition.txt)

hashed-boss (Security.txt)

[Original download link (top green button is fake which is what I mistakenly downloaded from)]

https://uploadrar(dot)com/o5j2120wp8ef


r/antivirus • • 12h ago

AV-Comparatives gave six consumer antivirus products its highest Advanced+ award in a September 2026 malware protection test.

7 Upvotes

The results matter to home users comparing security software, but they cover malicious-file protection and false alarms rather than every feature in each product.

Six products receive Advanced+​

https://av-comparatives.org/consumer-malware-protection-test-september-2026/

Bitdefender, ESET, G Data, Kaspersky, Total Defense and VIPRE earned the top rating. AV-Comparatives said these products combined strong protection with low false-positive rates, meaning they were less likely to incorrectly flag legitimate files as malicious.

  • Bitdefender Total Security
  • ESET HOME Security Essential
  • G Data Total Security
  • Kaspersky Premium
  • Total Defense Essential Anti-Virus
  • VIPRE Advanced Security

What the test covered​

The lab evaluated 20 consumer anti-malware products using about 10,000 malware samples. It looked beyond basic detection to whether products could prevent malware from compromising a system, while also measuring false positives that may interrupt users.

The tested field included free products such as Avast One Free Antivirus and AVG Antivirus Free, as well as Microsoft Defender Antivirus and paid security suites from several vendors.

How readers should use the results​

A top award is a useful comparison point, not a reason to switch immediately. Check the full report for detailed results, then weigh protection, false alarms, price, device support and whether your current product remains updated.

AV-Comparatives says the complete public report is available free of charge without registration.


r/antivirus • • 2h ago

Title: I fell for a fake CAPTCHA verification and Windows Defender detected a Trojan. How screwed am I? Hey everyone, I need some advice because I'm honestly pretty stressed about this. I was browsing moviesmod.com when a fake Cloudflare/human verification popped up. It instructed me to press Win

1 Upvotes

​

Hey everyone, I need some advice because I'm honestly pretty stressed about this.

I was browsing moviesmod.com when a fake Cloudflare/human verification popped up. It instructed me to press Win + R, paste something using Ctrl + V, and hit Enter. Unfortunately, I followed the instructions without thinking.

Nothing obvious happened immediately, but I got worried and started checking Windows Security.

Here's what happened afterward:

A Quick scan initially showed no threats.

I tried running Microsoft Defender Offline, but my laptop's battery died during the process. After rebooting, I got a BitLocker recovery screen, entered the recovery key, and Windows booted normally.

Later, Windows Defender detected TrojanDropper:PowerShell/Cobacis.B, marked as Severe, with its status showing Quarantined.

A subsequent scan detected PUABundler:Win32/MediaGet, marked as Low and initially showing Active in my Chrome cache. I removed the unwanted item through Windows Security.

I've also enabled potentially unwanted app blocking and run a scan afterward.

I haven't logged into any accounts or entered any passwords since following the fake verification.

My questions are:

Does the quarantined Trojan mean that specific file is contained, or could it have executed other things beforehand?

If the scan has finished and I've removed the unwanted item, is that generally enough, or should I do anything else?

Is there any reason to suspect my personal files or accounts are compromised?

Do I need to complete another Defender Offline scan, or is that unnecessary if everything looks okay?

I'm using Windows 11 with Microsoft Defender. I'm hoping to avoid reinstalling Windows or factory-resetting my laptop unless there's a genuine reason to.

I'd appreciate practical advice from anyone who's dealt with this. Please be honest, but I'd also like to avoid unnecessary panic.


r/antivirus • • 3h ago

Batalhando contra virus

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1 Upvotes

Instalei 2 vírus contra 4 antivírus vírus pvp lendario. Instalei um fake executor do delta para roblox e um fake de wave quero ver como o pc reage a tal virus


r/antivirus • • 4h ago

hello, a bit of a computer illetrate

1 Upvotes

so i want to COMPLETLY get rid of kaspersky plus, my subscription gonna end soon, and i want to get rid of the acc and any files, also i saw somewhere it still runs in the browser, i use chrome, i would appreciate any help


r/antivirus • • 4h ago

Me Beast hack downloaded something I shouldn’t have like an idiot any help is really appreciated!

1 Upvotes

This was on my old Windows installation. I've since reset the PC using Windows Reset and chose the Cloud Download option, so Windows was reinstalled from a fresh download.
Since then I've:
- Changed all my important passwords
- Added 2FA wherever possible
- Signed out/revoked sessions where I could
- Created a new email address and started moving my important accounts over to it
- I haven't signed into that new email on the pc
How do I know if I'm safe now? Is there anything else I should do or check to make sure the malware is gone and my accounts are secure?


r/antivirus • • 12h ago

Do I really need to reinstall windows?

Post image
3 Upvotes

Hi everyone. I fell victim to the teams interview link scam- in the process chrome ended up downloading a zip file which you can see in the attached screenshot. Defender did instantly quarantine it and remove it before I was ever able to click on it or do anything (I did not extract the file). Defender also grabbed a msteams file from the google cache but from my research it is just a webpage asset and shouldnt be harmful. I have ran many scans using Defender and Malwarebytes since with totally clean results each time. Offline scans and deep root scans come back clean as well.

In this case, do I really need to reinstall windows? I keep getting conflicting info in my own research.


r/antivirus • • 6h ago

I may have gottan a trojan and a keylogger pls help

0 Upvotes

So on my computer(not this one) i downloaded bad time trio and closed it again cause it was the wrong version but after closing it i saw a few screenshots in the comments that said it was a trojan and a keylogger which i didn read cause im dumb

So i deleted it right after opening it , am i fried

Links for the download site and totalvirus :

hxxps://gamejolt(dot)com/games/BTTN/979674

[https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7fd25f5eb8297d2670c3b009acb05d3442f2a8d0e520d4fd74cc277e6000ce25\](https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7fd25f5eb8297d2670c3b009acb05d3442f2a8d0e520d4fd74cc277e6000ce25)

This was the site i got the game version on it cause its the official game jolt site i wouldnt have to worry and in turn didn read the comments 😢


r/antivirus • • 6h ago

Click a link on a fake Asus.com email

1 Upvotes

I went to this email noreply[@]nedm[.]asus[.]com, clicked on this link: https[:]//omicard[.]asus[.]com/HL/3fe5324/510f0143/0/0.249731a/16eb7a9/16ec8c2/d/1170/800/64[.]htm, and then signed up with my Google account. I later then contacted Asus customer services and they say that the email is not theirs

The problem is that when I scan the link in virustotal, they said that there is nothing wrong with it. It just sends me to the official website. https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/bf76d01e4af939e1dea7b5fc7ccb7b24fcc22e4a23d83f49fc5b847b5a0efafb/gti-summary

It's been like five days, I tried to change all my passwords but some were personal info for others so I couldn't.

How do I know what does this link do? How severe is this?

What should I do?


r/antivirus • • 10h ago

How concern should i be about this?

2 Upvotes

the other 2 above have the exact same affected items but the status said it already removed.
my friend also got this at the exact same date and time


r/antivirus • • 6h ago

MALWARE REMOVAL Q&A Jedge extension adding itself to my Microsoft Edge extensions.

1 Upvotes

Hello! When I first encountered with this extension it was automatically blocked due to malware, policy changes, or blah blah blah. I HATE malware or anything malicious on my pc due to expensive accounts on steam and battlenet which all has cookies onto the edge browser.

I panicked, I removed the browser then made a page a week ago regarding it. (Another subreddit) and was told to reset my pc then install malwarebytes and adware (also malwarebytes) and it shows zero. Which I followed, then I installed Ublock Origin Lite (OFFICIAL DEV and original from the Ublock Origin from chrome) and the Jedge extension is back again. I panicked again and uninstalled it, made brave as my default browser. Changed all my passwords AGAIN and I didn’t touch edge since.

I did a windows defender FULL scan and zero threats, then I deleted the Microsoft extension filed and empty my recycle bin. I was told to do something in registry but I didn’t know how to do that.

What I am asking is this, what is making this Jedge extension come through Microsoft edge? I have nothing malicious nor do I click on links. I have Steam, Battlenet, Roblox, Epic Games. No random zip files or exes other than those.


r/antivirus • • 11h ago

MALWARE REMOVAL Q&A Surfshark flagged these files are they safe to remove?

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2 Upvotes

Have googled it, seems to be from app explorer that came pre installed on an acer pre built, app explorer has been uninstalled but these seem to be remnant files, but i've found conflicting info on whether they are safe to just get rid of and delete permanently


r/antivirus • • 8h ago

MALWARE REMOVAL Q&A riskware.fakeflash permanent removal?

1 Upvotes

Hello, I need help with something that may be on my computer.

Malwarebytes has been a godsend since it previously quarantined files labeled "riskware|.|flash" , and so I had Malwarebytes delete it, but it came back. I need to know what to do because my Malwarebytes trial is ending soon and this morning it quarantined more files.

It said that the origin file name was "ECBNOJOCKCGFOHPOPBPHHGEFKFBIGCEJ" which , but when I looked into my Chrome extensions, I found no matches. Even when I enabled Developer mode. I went into my file browser and I didn't find a match under the files on my computer.

Yet here it is in the Malwarebytes report.

I took screenshots of the report, and I need to know what to do. Malwarebytes won't protect me forever. I need to know a more permanent solution.

Please help.


r/antivirus • • 13h ago

MALWARE REMOVAL Q&A Malware/virus detection

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone, ill try to keep this short as possible while giving most details

So a while back almost a month ago, while on vacation i believe i couldve been put at risk of malware on my laptop im unsure as bitdefender scans and others showed nothing wrong but it i felt uneasy

Now im back home and now i have some shady feelings on my desktop i havent seen the most common detections

So far ive checked with bitdefender online/offline scans

Checked firewall rules, TCPviewer outgoing traffic

Nothing really seems bad, and i dont usually visit/download sketchy things

Still i feel quite paranoid due to from my research some malware being inactive for a time before activing

Is there any real risk? Or am i just being paranoid


r/antivirus • • 9h ago

Potential Infostealer from false file extension

1 Upvotes

Hello, I recently downloaded a graphic novel from Mobilism and in a series of very stupid decisions on my part, I ended up running a file of what I can only assume is a silent InfoStealer of sorts.

The website itself had no issues, but me being careless and downloading from one of the dud button links, then subsequently extracting the file from a .cbz.7z file to .cbz.exe (where I didnt notice the exe extension at first). Where I proceed to run it without anything happening. While researching why the cbz readers couldn't recognize it, I realised my mistake of running a sketchy app file.

I've done a offline scan of my laptop using Windows Defender, a Malwarebytes quick scan and changed the passwords on most of my relevant accounts. I'm currently performing a deep scan with Malwayrebytes and so far, no hits on anything pertinent.

[Original Website (the top green button is a dud)]

https://uploadrar(dot)com/o5j2120wp8ef

[Virus Total Scan of the website]

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/d10c9ec8baad4482122b6894dd651510cea7b2b691c9b4d6957a3251efb2a8e4?nocache=1

[The real file (.cbz) downloaded from the bottom button/link was an ordinary file without any issues]

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d8d73ee4c57bfdaf5a9b347beefa3aa8dfb64247fd5f5481e972982537425b56

At the moment, nothing seems out of the ordinary but I was wondering if I need to reformat my laptop to be safe? But I don't have an easy way to back up the amount of files I have at the moment so I'm somewhat reluctant.


r/antivirus • • 10h ago

Should I trust this file?

1 Upvotes

I uploaded the 7zip file I downloaded from the .org site on virustotal and 1 vendor of 71 flagged it (SecureAge). Should I proceed?

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d54bf805f9f3704d1e8db2fa3498ae7ef2df0312b40b558e7c71c734430a665d/detection


r/antivirus • • 10h ago

Windows Defender not up to date after 26H2? Wondering if it's a bug

1 Upvotes

So I got a random notification that my Defender isn't up to date. I opened the notification and there was a pop up about IT admin not giving permission but it quickly disappeared. Infected or bug? Asking because there is a bug going on recently


r/antivirus • • 1d ago

A friend of mine got a payload, I think. (i need help)

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25 Upvotes

Hi guys, a friend of mine ran this command. I told him to disconnect from the internet, reinstall Windows, and change all his passwords from another device. Do you know specifically what this is, and does he need to do anything else?