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Possible conflict between Malwarebytes and Avast

CristianM
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CristianM

CristianM

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Regards,

Well, it turns out that today there was an update of my Avast antivirus which I did and everything seemed perfect. Until recently I had to disable the "Web Protection" of Malwarebytes and there my problem arose. When trying to reactivate the "Web Protection" does not work and if that was not enough, the Malwarebytes user interface does not respond. I tried to finish the process through the task manager and it does not work either, and doing it instantly also hangs the latter. Which leads me to do a manual shutdown of my pc. This happens in my 2 pc. My questions are ... Is there a list of exclusions for both Malwarebytes and Avast? o What is the cause of this serious problem? Attaching the respective registers of both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10


Thankful in advance.

mbst-grab-results.zip

mbst-grab-results.zip

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Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes

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CristianM

CristianM

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2 hours ago, dcollins said:

Here are the exclusions that you will want to add to Avast for Malwarebytes: https://support.malwarebytes.com/docs/DOC-1123

If you close Avast, does the issue go away?

By temporarily disabling Avast I could finally activate "Web Protection". But here's a new problem ... By enabling Avast again, Malwarebytes crashes just like the Windows desktop and I have to force my PC to shut down manually. I have also added the respective exclusions to Avast and without any changes. I can not activate "Web Protection" without affecting my system.

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CristianM

CristianM

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Obviously, there is a conflict between Malwarebytes and Avast. I have returned to the previous version of Avast on one of my PCs with Windows 10 and everything works without any problem. However I wonder if there is any alternative for this problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

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CristianM

CristianM

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Can anyone help me? Malwarebytes is not able to activate "Web Protection" it only remains off, no matter how many times the button is clicked or exit the "Web Protection" program will not be activated. Doing a few tests on my PCs, I can now say that I am 100% sure that the problem is incompatibility between Malwarebytes and Avast. Can it be a problem between the "Web Shield" of Avast together with the "Web Protection" of Malwarebytes? Is someone else going through this? or is it my problem only?

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CristianM

CristianM

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12 minutes ago, dcollins said:

So far no one else has reported this issue, and I haven't had a chance to try and test on my end. Just to be clear, if you have Avast disabled, you still can't turn on Malwarebytes Web Protection?

Exactly, I can not activate it. As I said this happens in my 2 pcs, one with Windows 8.1 and the other with Windows 10. It should be mentioned, that I am up to date on Windows Update. I also ran the sfc / scannow command in case of doubt and everything is in order. The drivers also have them updated. And if that were not enough, they are free of viruses. Obviously everything is correct in my pcs. Relamente I do not know what happens. This happened yesterday that Avast was updated. Any suggestions?

Thank you.

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dcollins

dcollins

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Ok, I actually had some time to test this tonight, just don't tell my wife ?. The issue here is with Avast Real Site protection. You can disable this in Avast under Menu -> Settings -> Components. Find Real Site and then turn it off permanently. Note that if your computer is in the state with the Malwarebytes UI already stuck, you may need to reboot after disabling Real Site protection. My guess is that they don't like the fact that we're trying to inject ourselves into the networking stack as a DNS component, and they're blocking us, so we need to handle that situation better. 

This is the only work around I was able to find for the time being, but I have let our engineers about this issue to see if we can find a better permanent solution. Thanks for reaching out.

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CristianM

CristianM

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1 hour ago, dcollins said:

Ok, I actually had some time to test this tonight, just don't tell my wife ?. The issue here is with Avast Real Site protection. You can disable this in Avast under Menu -> Settings -> Components. Find Real Site and then turn it off permanently. Note that if your computer is in the state with the Malwarebytes UI already stuck, you may need to reboot after disabling Real Site protection. My guess is that they don't like the fact that we're trying to inject ourselves into the networking stack as a DNS component, and they're blocking us, so we need to handle that situation better. 

This is the only work around I was able to find for the time being, but I have let our engineers about this issue to see if we can find a better permanent solution. Thanks for reaching out.

Oh, this was already worrying me. So, I followed your instructions to the letter and finally I was able to activate "Web Protection" without any inconvenience. Obviously I hope that in future updates it will be possible to carry out a better solution, but for now, it is more than enough.

Thanks for your time ?

Greetings.

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exile360

exile360

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You might also consider installing the Malwarebytes browser extension beta which is available for Chrome (and other Chromium based browsers like SRWare Iron) as well as Firefox, assuming you use any of those browsers.  It has many of the capabilities of Web Protection in Malwarebytes 3 but also adds new capabilities including behavior based blocking of tech support scams, clickbait sites and blocks many ads and trackers to protect your privacy.  Since it uses behavioral detection it is able to block many sites that the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes 3 cannot since Web Protection relies strictly on databases of known bad websites so the extension increases your level of protection from unsafe sites.

If you're interested you can find out more about it in the following posts including links to download it if you wish:

Chrome
Firefox

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GK2005

GK2005

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Confirming as well.. both programs have been "playing nicely" together until avast's most recent patch. If both programs are running, I experience a multitude of issues - inability to open/load programs; sluggish &/or no response from the PC; frequent lockups; inability to properly shutdown windows - just to name a few.

 

I've gone so far as to completely reinstall windows etc thinking the update caused some sort of registry corruption. I've also put the following exclusions in avast:

 

AV Exclusions List with paths...

  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\assistant.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\malwarebytes_assistant.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\mbam.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\MbamPt.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\MBAMService.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\mbamtray.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware\MBAMWsc.exe
  • C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\farflt.sys
  • C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbae64.sys
  • C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mbam.sys
  • C:\Windows\System32\drivers\MBAMChameleon.sys
  • C:\Windows\System32\drivers\MBAMSwissArmy.sys
  • C:\Windows\System32\drivers\mwac.sys

 

Also the following folders to: (The complete folder)

  • C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes\Anti-Malware
  • C:\ProgramData\Malwarebytes\MBAMService

 

Bottom line is that their most recent patch severely broke something, I'm just not sure exactly what. I had to turn off all the active protection of Malwarebytes to get things to run (easier than gutting all of avasts settings).

Edited by GK2005
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exile360

exile360

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Have you guys also excluded Avast! from Malwarebytes to see if that helps at all?  You should just need to add its program folders, data folders and drivers via the Exclude a File or Folder function described on this page.  If you have any trouble locating any of Avast!'s files or folders, you can use a tool such as Autoruns to locate them (be sure to right-click on Autoruns.exe and select Run as administrator).

Also, as mentioned above, you should try disabling the Avast Real Site component in Avast! to see if that resolves the issue as at least one other user has indicated that this was the problem and that disabling it eliminated the issue.  It seems this may be similar to an issue with AVG's most recent update where its Fake Website Shield component has been causing problems with Malwarebytes, and I'm guessing they all may be connected to the same issue that Malwarebytes recently addressed where their own Web Protection component was causing BSODs on some systems (I'd read that other vendors were suffering from similar problems, potentially due to a recent change in Windows via a Windows Update, so if these vendors changed these web filter components to address a similar problem, it's possible that whatever was changed has created this conflict somehow).

I will report this to the team and have them investigate the possibility that all of these issues are somehow connected as the timing seems to fit given the sequence of events and the recent issues.

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GK2005

GK2005

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Just wanted to post a follow up - as stated - the Real Site Protection needs to be disabled; also - I found that Avast's "Do Not Disturb" option is still causing system sluggishness and often an inability for windows to shutdown correctly (contrary to the posts in Avast's forums - it is apparently not fixed).

My final temporary solution to all this (until things are sorted out) is to completely uninstall Avast's "Do Not Disturb" module, and set Malwarebytes up to turn on everything excluding "Web Protection". By doing this, my systems stability has been completely restored. I'm sharing this in the hopes it may help others!

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exile360

exile360

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Thanks for the added info.

In the meantime, since you have Web Protection disabled you should consider installing the Malwarebytes browser extension beta which is currently available free with versions for Chrome and other Chromium based browsers (SRWare Iron etc.) as well as Firefox.  It uses the same databases of known bad sites as the Web Protection component, though it only shields your browser, not the entire system the way Web Protection does but at least your browser will be shielded which is generally the primary point of attack/infection from malicious servers and sites.  The extension also includes additional capabilities including databases that block many ads, clickbait links/sites as well as trackers to protect privacy and also includes new behavior based, signature-less technologies that block new and unknown sites of specific categories including tech support scam sites meaning (something excels at as I've learned first-hand in my own use, testing and research as I've seldom come across any tech support scam site it didn't block even though they were unknown to Malwarebytes' Researchers at the time).

More info and download links for each version can be found in the following topics:

Chrome
Firefox

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Zdenal

Zdenal

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Hallo, 

I'm responsible for Real Site protection in the Avast product. I have tested both products several minutes ago, and problem is only in MalwareBytes Web Protection activation process. It hangs the MB product completely.

If I disable Real Site, enable MB WebProterction and then enable Real Site again, everything works well.

 

Some more technical pieces of information:

Malware Bytes is trying to filter the UDP traffic (probbably DNS). It's same as Real site does. If two products try to capture UDP traffic by Windows WFP technology, a UDP packet loop can occurs if it's not implemented correctly. We found this problem with several other products. It's caused by two WFP drivers, when each capture UDP packet generated by other, drop it and generate new one. But this new one is presented to first driver, captured, dropped, generated again and it can continue indefinitely. 

We discussed the problem with Microsoft WFP developers, to try to find solution for the problem. Avast had some protection against this before, but it doesn't work every time. Then we implemented new solution recommended by Microsoft. I can see from driver debugging, that it works, when both components are active (as described above). Problem is just in WebProtection activation process (not under my control, no time for reverse engineering).
Seems that the MB UDP filtering solution is not compatible with MS recommended solution, but anyway, if you use capture, drop, create and inject new packet scenario for the UDP traffic, it's completely wrong and can cause conflicts with many products.

 

I'll appreciate if an responsible WFP developer contact us. I'll be happy to explain to him how to to solve the problem. 

Best regards

Zdenek

Edited by Zdenal
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