Norton blocking a Malwarebytes file!

[Irhere]

Hello,

I am using MB 3.4.5 Premium & I have not had any problems with it.

I also use Norton Security, & Win 10, spring update (1803).

 

I have never entered any exclusion in MB or NS & have used both programs for years.

Should there be exclusions set because of the following?

 

Norton Security history log shows a continual blocking (although it never triggers a flag) of:

PROGRAM FILES\MALWAREBYTES\ANTI-MALWARE\MBAMSERVICE.EXE

With the target being:

PROGRAM FILES\NORTON SECURITY WITH BACKUP\ENGINE\22.14.0.54\NORTON SECURITY.EXE

(Norton also says no action required & I have just ignored this for as long as I can remember).

(Screenshots showing Norton blocking the above are attached).

 

Would Malwarebytes or Norton run any differently if this block did not occur? Does this block just prevent the file from being scanned & might it have something to do with the backup being out on a cloud?

 

Everything else appears to be normal & there are no problems that I can see.

Thank you,

Kent

 

[Malwarebytes]

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[Firefox]

Hello and Welcome back..

First thing, you are on an older version of Malwarebytes, make sure and update to the latest version... Download the Latest MB3 v3.5.1.2522 CU 1.0.365 from ->>RIGHT HERE<<-

As for the detection, it looks like Norton is picking up on files that are being scanned by Malwarebytes... once the scan is done those files will probably disappear.

If you want to make sure provide the logs requested above and someone from staff will review them.

If you would like to add exclusions (I always do to be proactive and avoid conflicts) see this KB below.

https://support.malwarebytes.com/docs/DOC-1123

[Irhere]

Thank you Firefox for the fast reply,

I do not think that I have a tech issue, but it does not hurt to check.

Attached mbst-grab-results

Kent

mbst-grab-results.zip

[Firefox]

Thanks for the logs, lets wait for @dcollins to review them...

[exile360]

It looks like those entries are coming from Norton's self-protection/self-defense component and are just responding to Malwarebytes when it is analyzing Norton's processes/files.  It shouldn't cause any harm.  We have seen similar behaviors in the past from other AV products, including previous versions of Norton/Symantec products and it shouldn't affect how the two programs function together to protect the system.

You can try excluding Norton's files from Malwarebytes, but that probably won't work because Malwarebytes never truly ignores any file/folder in the sense that one might think in that it still scans/checks/monitors everything, exclusions simply cause Malwarebytes to allow/not detect the excluded items as threats meaning excluding it would probably not stop these entries from being created by Norton.

What you might be able to do if it is a problem is add MBAMService.exe as an excluded/trusted process in Norton and it might stop the alerts, however it's not guaranteed.  Otherwise, you could probably disable the self-defense component in Norton if you had to and that would stop the alerts as well.

[Irhere]

Hi exile360,

Thank you for your explanation.

I think that I will leave well enough alone since MB & NS have worked well together. I would never know this happens except for reading NS history report as no flags ever come up & it seems that it refers to only the one same file over & over.

[exile360]

Sounds good

I think that's probably best as this really does no harm.  It's just Norton protecting itself and Malwarebytes making sure things are secure.  But it shouldn't stop either product from effectively defending your system from real threats.

[lmacri]

On 5/18/2018 at 5:32 PM, Firefox said:

...If you would like to add exclusions (I always do to be proactive and avoid conflicts) see this KB below.

https://support.malwarebytes.com/docs/DOC-1123

Hi Irhere:

See Cindy10's thread Norton Blocked my Mailwarebites antimailwareprogram! in the Norton forum for further information about these Unauthorized Access Blocked messages.  As others have suggested, these entries are logged in the Norton Product Tamper Protection (NPTP) section of your Norton security history every time any executable (including trusted Windows system files like svchost.exe, dfrgntfs.exe, etc.) attempts to read/write/edit/delete a Norton file.  This NPTP logging rarely causes a performance issue and it's usually safe to ignore these Unauthorized Access Blocked entries in your security history.

The instructions in Cindy10's Norton forum thread are a bit out-of-date but if you'd like to try Firefox's suggestion in post # 3 to create scan exclusions for the Malwarebytes v3.x files listed at https://support.malwarebytes.com/docs/DOC-1123 (like Firefox, I always do this to prevent possible conflicts) this will likely stop the Unauthorized Access Blocked logging for MBAMService.exe.  Go to Settings | Antivirus | Scans and Risks | Exclusions / Low Risks and then add the file and folder exclusions in both the Items to Exclude from Scans section (to prevent detection during a "traditional" file scan like a Quick Scan) and Items to Exclude from Auto-Protect, SONAR Detection and Download Intelligence Detection section (to prevent detection by Norton's real-time protection) as shown in the image below. See the support article Exclude Files and Folders from Norton Auto-Protect, SONAR, and Download Intelligence Scans for further information.

I'm currently having a few issues running Norton v22.x and MB Premium v3.x together in real-time protection mode on my old Vista SP2 machine so I'm also testing the following exclusions for Norton executables in Malwarebytes at Settings | Exclusions | Add Exclusion.  Unfortunately, the location of the main Norton executable (nortonsecurity.exe if you are using the latest Norton v22.14.0.54) moves to a different folder every time Symantec releases a product update so if you want to create an exclusion for a specific file like nortonsecurity.exe you'll have to remember to edit the exclusion every time Norton is updated.

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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.8.0 * Norton Security Premium v22.14.0.54 * MB Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365

Edited May 20, 2018 by lmacri