Malwarebytes bocking Chrome and Firefox

[jwketch]

Today, both Firefox and Chrome have stopped opening any webpages at all, including local html files, or the settings page.  The browsers' applications start but they won't display anything.  Chrome starts and tries to go to the home page, but will only display a frowny face in the tab, and grays-out the window.  Firefox opens and tries to go to the home page, but just displays a blank page and spins its wheels.  Chrome complains about Norton and Adobe extensions crashing.  I disabled those two extensions in Chrome, but it didn't fix the problems.  If I turn off Malwarebytes, Chrome and Firefox run fine.   Malwarebytes scan does not turn up any problems.  MS Edge runs fine whether Malwarebytes is running or not.  Most recent intentional software installs ( all automatic updates) were four days ago, but this problem just surfaced today.

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro-1370

Windows 10 Pro; Version 1607; build 14393.1066

Malwarebytes 3.0.6.1469;  component package version 1.0.96; Update package version 1.0.1735.

Also running Norton Security Suite, provided by my ISP.  Last updated yesterday.

Thanks in advance for help with this

 

[Porthos]

12 minutes ago, jwketch said:

component package version 1.0.96

Might want to install

 

[jwketch]

Thanks for the suggestion, Porthos.  I uninstalled MWB, then reinstalled with the updated package referred to in the post above, then rebooted, but there is no change in behavior.  Malwarebytes still seems to be blocking both Chrome and Firefox from loading any content whatsoever.  Also ran a scan with the updated version, still not finding anything to complain about.  Not sure how to proceed here:  Google searches don't turn up any obviously similar problems.

 

[Phone Man]

There is a conflict between Norton Exploit Prevention and MB 3 Exploit Protection.

The work around is to go to Manage Protected Applications under Exploit Protection and turn off FF an Chrome protection.

Malwarebytes is working on this.

Jim 

 

[Porthos]

19 minutes ago, Phone Man said:

There is a conflict between Norton Exploit Prevention and MB 3 Exploit Protection.

The work around is to go to Manage Protected Applications under Exploit Protection and turn off FF an Chrome protection.

Malwarebytes is working on this.

Jim 

 

 

Exactly my next step. Wanted to get the OP up to date first.

[jwketch]

Thanks for your help, and rapid response.  That took care of it.  Curious that this just cropped up today.  I have been running Norton and Malwarebytes together since last summer.

[Phone Man]

I think the problem started with CP 1.0.96 update.

Jim 

[BillH99999]

This is just a temporary work-around and hopefully there will be a fix soon so you can turn your protection back on in MB.

Edited April 15, 2017 by BillH99999

[depperly]

This same thing happened to me last weekend.  My solution was to uninstalled Malwarebytes and then retryfirefox and chrome.  They both started working again.  I then reinstalled MB and firefox and chrome continued to work properly.  I came back to my computer the next day and couldn't start Firefox or chrome again so I repeated the process of uninstalling MB and then reinstalling it.. Again, both Firefox and Chrome started working.

This weekend it has happened again but I now have a faster method of getting Firefox and Chrome to work temporarily until this issue is fixed.  Now I just click on the MB icon in the lower right tray and pick Quit Malwarebytes.  I go ahead and start firefox or Chrome and then restart MB.  Everything then works until I shut down.

[jwketch]

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one with this problem.  Would like to hear from MWB support directly about whether this is a known and understood problem and when we can expect a fix.  

[depperly]

What I find odd is that this is happening on only one of two computers running the exact same software.  One is HP and the other is Dell which is the one having the problem.

[dcollins]

This is a known issue with Anti-Exploit, Norton Exploit Prevention, and 32 bit versions of these applications. If you have 64-bit versions, they should work fine.

The good news is that we've already fixed this in the Anti-Exploit standalone beta and it should be in our next MB3 release as well. For now, you can go to Settings -> Protection in Malwarebytes and under Manage Protected Applications, disable the apps that are having issues. You could also disable one of the two exploit protection softwares

[Evn]

I had this same problem, while under a deadline, and had both Chrome and Firefox cease to function. Needless to say, without warning. I pored over the log files in Malwarebytes to see whether it had been up to anything, and there was nothing to suggest that it had. Why nothing in the log file?

Also, does Malwarebytes maintain any kind of mailing list whereby customers might receive critical notifications, you know, along the lines of, "Hey, we are now preventing you from using either Chrome and Firefox, and here's how you might work around it for the time being..."

Thanks.

[dcollins]

There's nothing in the logs, because Malwarebytes isn't actually blocking these applications. What's happening is an incompatibility between two different Exploit Prevention softwares.

[Guest]

I just made a similar experience with the browser Opera.

You know, i had deleted MBAM2 two weeks ago because of another issue (unsteady IP-protection).

Yesterday I installed MBAM2 again. Of course I updated the database of MBAM2 immediatelly after installing it, but I didn't use Opera after that update.

Now today Opera doesn't open at all, it always says "loading" but nothing happens, no website is opened.

When I switch off the malware protection and the IP-protection in MBAM2 Opera runs smoothly, I can open every website.

Switching on both modules again, the issue also appears again.

While all the years I used MBAM2 that issue never happened.

I also use Norton Interenet Security since a lot of years.

Therefore I suppose, there's a connection between yesterday's update of the database and now freezing Opera or between an update of Norton and the update of the database of MBAM2.

The browsers Firefox and K-Meleon aren't affected on my PC, both ones run without issues after yesterday's update of the database.

I can't send any log files because I have deleted MBAM2 again.

[Guest]

Addition to my last reply:

Since I have removed MBAM2 and MBAE completely from my PC two days ago, all three browsers Firefox, Opera and K-Meleon are loading and running definitely faster.