AVG Update Breaks iTunes

nate_in_ME writes "After getting a positive from the AVG virus detector while playing music on iTunes just a few minutes ago, I did a bit of research. It appears that AVG has recently pushed an update to the virus definitions that flags every iPod/iTunes related file as being infected with the 'Small.BOG' trojan. Interestingly enough, AVG does not have any information on this particular virus in their virus encyclopedia. Discussion on the Apple forum is up to 4 pages and climbing. One user there had an interesting thought: 'Maybe Palm has some shares in AVG...MUAHAAAA!!' (on page 3)."

Comments

Had This Problem Myself

[Jucius Maximus]

It does not appear to flag "every" file related to iTunes, it is just the iTunesMiniPlayer.dll.

The workaround is to disable the real-time scanner.

However their latest update had fixed it, and my real-time scanner is running again without problem.

Re:Had This Problem Myself

[Anonymous Coward]

Set the permissions to disallow your account to run avnotify.exe, and the problem goes away.

Re:Had This Problem Myself

[kklein]

Or switch to a better AV product.

I loved AVG for a long time, but since 8, it has been a resource hog and has added a bunch of crap I don't want and keeps asking me if I'd like to pay and keeps throwing up false positives.

I just got rid of it the other day.

Re:Had This Problem Myself

[halffull]

I recently switched away from AVG as well, but I tried Avast instead. No nag screens anywhere, and it's easy to get a very light install without any extras. No performance issues that I've noticed.

Re:Had This Problem Myself

[kevingolding2001]

I think you are talking about Avast.
When it detects a virus a big grey window opens up showing the biohazard symbol, you hear a siren, then a voice (sounding remarkably like Kitt) says "A virus has been detected".
Yes it is kind of annoying, but I still regard it as one of the better anti-virus programs.

Re:Had This Problem Myself

[adolf]

I like Avast quite a bit. It's generally fast, problem-free, and stays the hell out of the way.

Or at least, it stays out of the way once you do a few things to it:

Tell it to turn off all sounds and notifications of normalcy. And to automatically accept all new program and definition updates. And to never to bother to ask to reboot the computer (it's a Windows desktop -- it'll be rebooted soon enough for othe reasons, anyway).

After that, it just sits quietly on the taskbar unless things go awry somehow.

This is a problem with AV in general.

[Anonymous Coward]

I work at a AV vendor (not one of the big ones), and false positives are a big problem. Essentially there are two issues. First, how severe is the threat? You might skimp on your validation process in order to get something out sooner. Second (and much harder to resolve), there is effectively an infinite amount of software out there; on top of that, there may also be many different versions (iTunes 6, 7, 8, point releases, etc). You try to do the best you can, but shit happens because you can only test against so much software.

Re:Haha, good

[_merlin]

I have too much music for simple drag and drop to be useful. I like iTunes' smart playlists, which effectively give me a query language into my music library. If you do just want to drag and drop, tell iTunes that you want to manage the music on your iPod manually. You'll still have to use iTunes, but you'll be able to drag stuff on and off the device.

why is AVG still a major player?

[13th seer]

AVG turned to fucking donkey shit after 7.5. it blows my mind people still use it. the company treats their end users like idiots, their software behaves like the malware it claims to rid your system of, and eats up a shitton of resources to boot

yet it still seems to be one of the most popular free scanners, if not the most. I don't get it

it's hard to find a decent free antivirus that doesn't nag or suck these days. iirc Avira had nag screens, and a ridiculous amount of false positives. the least crap one I've used seems to be avast!. it seems to detect a decent amount of viruses, keeps out of the way, and and doesn't eat up a lot of resources

Re:why is AVG still a major player?

[nulldaemon]

AVG hasn't ever been 'in my way', and certainly not like any of the malware I read about (inserting themselves into pages, turning your machine into a spam bot, making it impossible to reach websites, etc.) -- 'd really love to see a clarification on that statement.

A while back AVG pushed out a poorly designed malware scanner that would scan search results before you clicked on them; AVG would basically visit each link that showed up in your search results. AVG traffic soon outstripped real traffic about 10 times, and there was a very strong backlash from popular websites (Slashdot, Whirlpool) who accused AVG of a massive DOS attack, as well as urged their members to choose a different virus product. Quite a few people seem to be still holding this one mistake against AVG, even though it has little relevance today...

Re:why is AVG still a major player?

[kevingolding2001]

Quite a few people seem to be still holding this one mistake against AVG, even though it has little relevance today...

I think that what people are still upset about is not the initial mistake, but the "you have to break some eggs" comment by AVG chief of research Roger Thompson in response to the complaints.

This demonstrates a certain arrogance on the part of AVG, and that attitude is what people are still wary of.

Re:why is AVG still a major player?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The problem is that there is momentum. Finding a trustworthy AV program on your own takes some savvy, because there are a lot of shady operators that spam the google index with shady products. They might look legitimate, but a tech savvy person, they might stumble across a trap.

Personally, I thought Avast was kind of annoying. Except for 8.0, I really haven't had much trouble with AVG. It was with 8.0 that I tried some others, AVG 8.5 seems to work just fine now.

Re:Haha, good

[dhovis]

Add a folder to your library, wait while itunes chugs and makes a COPY of each file before syncing.

In iTunes Preferences: Go to "Advanced". Uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library". iTunes will leave your files where they are and just index them.

Personally I like the way iTunes organizes my music and keeps the actual files out of my way, but YMMV.

Slashdot Journalistic Ethics

[mysidia]

From the summary: One user there had an interesting thought: 'Maybe Palm has some shares in AVG...MUAHAAAA!!'

It's nearly culpable negligence (IMO, lack of due care) to repeat a statement like that one, which has no basis in reality, and could significantly tarnish AVG's reputation.

Please see this quote:

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." --Robert J. Hanlon

Re:iPhone

[Anonymous Coward]

Just get the palm pre, it fixes all the bad things of the iphone while keeping all the good things.

Trust Issues?

[TheFatherMind]

I took it upon myself to drop them (AVG) a quick note telling them that I was hard pressed to pay/trust my welfare to a company that did not know what its own viruses were. And then I discovered that they really did not want to talk to or hear from me. It took me almost 10 minutes to find a form I could actually successfully type something into (Try it yourself!). And to do so I had to choose some very odd options from the dropdowns as they had NOTHING related to simply giving them feedback or "Other". It is a shame as I have been doing rather well with their free version.

Slashdot can be a lot of things

[msimm]

but you're asking it to be humorless.

Not only is the joke topical (in the sense it's related to another recent story) but it's made clear that it's a joke by keeping it in context (...MUAHAAAA!!).

You sir, FAIL.

Re:Haha, good

[geekboy642]

Dunno if you're aware of this, but you can make iTunes not copy music into its special folder. Hit Ctrl+, and go to the Advanced tab. Uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library". Then when you drag stuff into iTunes it just adds a reference to it in the library, but leaves your original files alone.

As for wanting an iPod you can just drag music on and off of? Well, you bought the wrong device for that, sparky. iThings are for people that don't want to mess around with folders and files. If you're just in love with the glossy white cover, but want Windows-style awkwardness, there's Rockbox for you.

Re:No Surprise

[Ultracrepidarian]

I have never located any information in their "virus encyclopedia" for any virus flagged on my machine. It is totally useless.

Re:AVG is doing its job

[Briareos]

More like "bad software is a virus" - have you looked at iTunes on a Windows system? Yeeech... >_<

np: Orbital - The Naked And The Dead (2Orbital (Disc 2))

Re:Haha, good

[Briareos]

I didn't say anything bad about any other music players. They could be great for all I know. I was simply pointing out that managing a music player's contents manually doesn't scale well with large music libraries.

But at least foobar2000 lets me fill my iPod without ever having to use the abomination that is iTunes... what's not to like?

np: Orbital - Sad But True (2Orbital (Disc 2))

Re:Update

[saxoholic]

Yeah, AVG had a false positive on friday, several users submitted false positive reports, and the updated virus definitions yesterday fixed the problem. Nothing to see here, move along.