Question about Adware Agent OL

[whatmeworry?]

I'm using Malwarebytes Premium 4.2.0. on my Windows 7 desktop computer. Yesterday, I restored from quarantine something that Malwarebytes had found quite a while ago. It was one of several that Malwarebytes described as Adware Agent OL, apparently a registry key found in HKLM\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\PROD.CAP.  As soon as I restored it, I was able to use a Spanish/English dictionary that I like a lot but that I had been unable to open for quite a while. Today, Malwarebytes again found and wanted to quarantine Adware Agent OL. I told it not to do so. My question is, if I tell it to always ignore it, will Malwarebytes ignore just the Adware Agent from this company, or will it ignore all Adware Agents it finds?  (It finds relatively little malware on my computer, and most of what it does find is labelled as Adware Agent OL.) If my telling it to ignore this particular piece of malware "always" results in Malwarebytes ignoring ALL such malware no matter where it's from, then I will simply each day tell Malwarebytes to ignore this once. I'd rather be able to have Malwarebytes ignore just the specific Adware Agent OL that I need in order to use my dictionary. Thus, I need to know what my saying "Always ignore" will do. Is there a more specific way for me to tell Malwarebytes to ignore just this one Adware Agent OL? Indeed, is there a way of my being able to distinguish among a dozen different pieces of malware, all labelled Adware Agent OL?  Let me also add that I do not think this is a false positive. The company has become somewhat untrustworthy, but I still love its dictionary, and I'm willing to put up with a little annoyance in order to do so, but I do want to be protected from Adware Agent OLs from other companies. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

If you exclude that detection it will only exclude that particular registry key that it originally detected; exclusions are not created based on the vendor name or classification and instead only apply to specific objects on the system (for example, specific files, folders, or registry keys/values), though folder exclusions are recursive (meaning excluding a folder in Malwarebytes will exclude all items contained within that folder, including other folders and any objects those folders contain).

Additional information on exclusions in Malwarebytes and how to create them can be found in this support article.

I hope this helps, and if there is anything else we can help with please let us know.

Thanks

[whatmeworry?]

Thanks very much, exile, for your response. My problem is that I currently have 12 Adware.AgentOL entries in quarantine. They all have exactly the same description.  The name is always Adware.AgentOL, the Type is always Registry Key, and the Location is always HKLM\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\PROD.CAP  .  Nothing in the Malwarebytes listing differentiates one from another except the date they were found by a MB scan. That leads me to fear that all are treated similarly, and that if I say "Ignore Always" ALL the Adware.AgentOLs will be ignored, not just the one that I find I need.   I wrote to the forum hoping someone could tell me either that Malwarebytes does differentiate among all these Adware.AgentOLs but simply doesn't make that clear in the listing it gives me, or that  Malwarebytes does not differentiate among them, and so if I say "Ignore Always," it will ignore ALL Adware.AgentOLs that it finds.  Once I know this, I will know how I want to respond when I'm asked whether I want to ignore always or ignore once.

[exile360]

If you add that item to your exclusions it will exclude that particular path/item.  I suspect the reason that there are multiple entries is that it is getting recreated by the program you're using, so Malwarebytes detects it again.  If you post the actual reports/scan logs we can possibly provide more info as the information listed in the quarantine tab is just a summary (that's why you can't differentiate between them).  Click on the Detection History card on the left side of the main UI, then select the History tab and double-click on one of the entries showing the Adware.AgentOL detection and export the log then post it here in your next reply.

[whatmeworry?]

Thanks very much, exile, for your continued help.  I went into the History tab, doubleclicked on yesterday's entry, and exported it. It's attached to this message.

mb1206_log.txt

[exile360]

OK, that entry is a specific key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\PROD.CAP and the log indicates No Action By User, meaning the item was not quarantined.

If you choose to exclude the item by following the instructions I provided above (perform a scan and once it completes, uncheck the checkbox next to the item then click Next and select the button to always ignore the item when prompted, it will be added to your Allow List and should no longer be detected).  That will not exclude any other items except that specific registry key, therefore you don't have to worry about any other future threats being excluded.  This is because, as I explained previously, exclusions are not created based on specific vendor/threat names; they are specific to the actual item being excluded (in this case, that particular registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\PROD.CAP), so only that specific key will be excluded from detection.

I hope that helps to clarify how it works and if there is anything else we can help with please let us know.

Thanks

[whatmeworry?]

Thanks VERY much, exile!  Thanks to you, I've been able to see that all the Adware.AgentOL's are probably the same one, found on different days.  After reading your most recent message, I released two of the Adware.AgentOLs in quarantine and ran a second Malwarebytes scan. Although it should have found three files had they been different, it found only one, and that one, one of the two that I'd just released from quarantine, had the same ID number as the one I was initially concerned about. Indeed, they all seem to have the same ID number (6965) as well as the registry key designation HKLM\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\PROD.CAP.  Now that I know they're all the same, I can tell Malwarebytes to "Ignore Always" without worrying that Malwarebytes will ignore different Adware.AgentOLs should they appear.

Again, MANY THANKS!

[exile360]

Yes, that's correct.  In all likelihood whatever program created it was just recreating it at some point after Malwarebytes had quarantined it which explains why it kept returning.