Can't stop Malwarebytes from blocking a download I want.

[ECKJR]

I'm trying to download Advance System Care 12 Beta, an update to the version I'm currently using.  Malwarebytes keeps blocking it, and I can't figure out how to stop it.  I checked the several elements of that program on the Exclusions list, then clicked add exclusions, but it didn't stop.  Next time I clicked on remove exclusions, and that didn't work either.  Then it wants me to tell it what files I don't want quarantined, but since the download never got that far, I can't tell them where the file is located.  This shouldn't be this difficult.  It certainly isn't user friendly as far as I'm concerned.  Unless someone can tell me how to resolve this, I'll just uninstall it and get some other program.

[Malwarebytes]

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[plb4333]

1 hour ago, ECKJR said:

I'm trying to download Advance System Care 12 Beta, an update to the version I'm currently using.  Malwarebytes keeps blocking it, and I can't figure out how to stop it.  I checked the several elements of that program on the Exclusions list, then clicked add exclusions, but it didn't stop.  Next time I clicked on remove exclusions, and that didn't work either.  Then it wants me to tell it what files I don't want quarantined, but since the download never got that far, I can't tell them where the file is located.  This shouldn't be this difficult.  It certainly isn't user friendly as far as I'm concerned.  Unless someone can tell me how to resolve this, I'll just uninstall it and get some other program.

I'm guessing you got the original one before you installed MBAM? I'm pretty sure MBAM considers this a risk for download, whether update or full version. I believe that program comes with different program additions that are not recommended for security. Doesn't it come bundled with software, more than itself? What you would have to do since it wasn't downloaded, but blocked, is configure MBAM to make exclusion to the web site, not the program.

[exile360]

For installing software, since installers are essentially just scripted archives that frequently extract files to one or more temporary locations during install, excluding them preemptively can be difficult if not impossible so the simplest solution would be to temporarily disable the Malware Protection component in Malwarebytes or temporarily turn off detection for PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs), install the software, then perform a Threat scan with Malwarebytes via the Scan Now button located on the Dashboard tab in the main Malwarebytes UI.  Once the scan completes, click the checkbox at the top to uncheck all detected items, making certain that all of them belong to ASC (you obviously don't want to accidentally exclude any actual threats) then click Next and once the prompt is displayed asking what to do with the remaining/unchecked items, click Ignore Always and the program's files, folders and registry data will all be excluded from detection in the future, that is assuming your existing exclusions do not already cover the beta installation (a new program version means they might have changed one or more items/locations, so new exclusions may be necessary).

In the future, follow the same procedure of temporarily disabling Malware Protection or PUP detection in Malwarebytes whenever you are going to run an installer which is detected as PUP by Malwarebytes.

I hope this helps.

[ECKJR]

1 hour ago, plb4333 said:

I'm guessing you got the original one before you installed MBAM? I'm pretty sure MBAM considers this a risk for download, whether update or full version. I believe that program comes with different program additions that are not recommended for security. Doesn't it come bundled with software, more than itself? What you would have to do since it wasn't downloaded, but blocked, is configure MBAM to make exclusion to the web site, not the program.

It seems that in the process, it also quarantined or somehow deleted my older version.  I tried excluding the entire web site, but that didn't solve the problem either.

[ECKJR]

1 hour ago, exile360 said:

For installing software, since installers are essentially just scripted archives that frequently extract files to one or more temporary locations during install, excluding them preemptively can be difficult if not impossible so the simplest solution would be to temporarily disable the Malware Protection component in Malwarebytes or temporarily turn off detection for PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs), install the software, then perform a Threat scan with Malwarebytes via the Scan Now button located on the Dashboard tab in the main Malwarebytes UI.  Once the scan completes, click the checkbox at the top to uncheck all detected items, making certain that all of them belong to ASC (you obviously don't want to accidentally exclude any actual threats) then click Next and once the prompt is displayed asking what to do with the remaining/unchecked items, click Ignore Always and the program's files, folders and registry data will all be excluded from detection in the future, that is assuming your existing exclusions do not already cover the beta installation (a new program version means they might have changed one or more items/locations, so new exclusions may be necessary).

In the future, follow the same procedure of temporarily disabling Malware Protection or PUP detection in Malwarebytes whenever you are going to run an installer which is detected as PUP by Malwarebytes.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, exile360--that worked perfectly.  Problem solved!  Appreciate your quick response. So now I'll keep Malwarebytes.

[exile360]

Excellent, I'm glad to be of service

If you need anything else just let us know.

By the way, in case you guys were curious, whenever you exclude a blocked website in Malwarebytes, that exclusion does not extend to files downloaded from that site, so if they are detected by any of Malwarebytes components then you'll need to either disable the component detecting it (such as Malware Protection in this case), or exclude the file itself from being detected (though as I mentioned before, with installers it can be tricky since they might extract their individual files to other locations during the installation process, so it's generally simpler to just temporarily disable protection, install the software, then re-enable protection and then create any necessary exclusions for the final installed software).

Also, if you'd like to learn more about how the individual layers/components in Malwarebytes work at different phases to protect you, then I'd recommend checking out the info on this page as it provides a great overview of how it all works.

[DavidBRoberson]

The problem I've had since installing Malwarebytes is all downloads are being blocked, even with malware, ransomware, PUPs and PUMs disabled. I've already excluded my browser configuration and checked my firewall permissions. They are not responsible. Unfortunately, I don't see any report of the blocks in Malwarebytes Reports or Quarantine. I'm running out of ideas, and not finding much online beyond the checks I've done.

Because this thread exists, I am picking it up here rather than starting a new thread. I will look more into setting up exclusions, but I'm dubious that will help if the problem exists with the protection completely disabled.

[exile360]

Have you tried disabling Web Protection yet?  If not, give that a try and see if that eliminates the blocks.  If not, then it seems likely that Malwarebytes isn't the issue (or at least not directly as it could be some kind of conflict with something else on the system).

[Amaroq_Starwind]

Are you using Google Chrome? Google Chrome has done this to me very recently, but fortunately I had a Firefox installer ready to go on a flash drive.

Whatever web browser you're currently using, I'd suggest trying a different one and seeing if that fixes the problem.

[LiquidTension]

7 hours ago, DavidBRoberson said:

The problem I've had since installing Malwarebytes is all downloads are being blocked, even with malware, ransomware, PUPs and PUMs disabled.

Please carry out steps #4 and #5 in the following topic so we can take a closer look at the issue.
https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/190532-having-problems-using-malwarebytes-please-follow-these-steps/