Second "Unspecified" Malware with no name or location listed...

[jnottingham]

I have been running a Custom scan for over 6 hours now on an external drive which is showing for the second day in a row the same Unspecified Malware detection but that is all. There are no other details nor does it show at the end of the scan in the report.  I don't know it this is relevant or not but there have been over the last month 10 different detections, the majority of them on this external, which holds the largest part of the files now it appears.  It just finished and in about 5 seconds I was given the opportunity to put it in quarantine and then it disappeared and showed a log file where there is was no malware.  What should I do...

 

I have included the one from today and also another one from earlier this month where I stopped the scan after only EIGHT hours ._. and still wasn't able to do anything with it.   Please help.  I am going through a separation/divorce and my husband is a developer and could very well be doing many of the things that are happening to my computer but I don't have a way of knowing where his capabilities stop and the real concern begins... not that he isn't a concern.  Ugh.

 

Thank you ahead of time for your help.

 

 

MBam log May27 Unspecified.txt heuristics.txt

[Malwarebytes]

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[Porthos]

Hi,

Do you have "Use expert system algorithms to identify malicious files" enabled? It is located in Settings > Security> Scan option.  Turn it off.

This is normally disabled by default.

In either way, Staff will look into this and get this fixed.

Thanks for reporting!

FYI. This setting is in the experimental stage.

That setting is to detect malformed files but sometimes legit files use protection that make them malformed. Malwarebytes is still tweaking the algorithms that is why it’s off by default. If you switch it on it is assumed, you are able to tell the difference between a FP and a legit detection. 

And if you keep it on, I suggest also turn off auto quarantine. Gives you the time to report FP's and not go thru the extra step to have to restore from quarantine.

Next, doing a full custom scan is unneeded.

Malwarebytes is not designed to function like normal AV scanners and uses a new kind of scan engine that relies mostly on heuristics detection techniques rather than traditional threat signatures.  Malwarebytes is also designed to look in all the locations where malware is known to install itself/hide, so a full or custom scan shouldn't be necessary, especially on any sort of frequent basis (like daily), especially since the default Threat Scan/Quick Scan checks all loading points/startup locations, the registry, all running processes and threads in memory, along with all system folders, program folders and data folders as well as any installed browsers, caches and temp locations.  This also means that if a threat were active from a non-standard location, because Malwarebytes checks all threads and processes in memory, it should still be detected.  The only threat it *might* miss would be a dormant/inactive threat that is not actively running/installed on a secondary drive, however if the threat were executed then Malwarebytes should detect it.  Additionally, whenever a new location is discovered to be used by malware the Malwarebytes Research team adds that location dynamically to the outgoing database updates so the locations that are checked by the default Threat/Quick Scan in Malwarebytes can be changed on the fly by Research without requiring any engine or program version updates/upgrades.

The detection in your heuristic log is a false positive due to having "Use expert system algorithms to identify malicious files" enabled.

[jnottingham]

Wow, alright then.  I am overly cautious and worried about literally everything.  Seeing that a daily scan is unnecessary gives me a massive relief.  Thank you for your time!!  I will return everything to their default stage, since that seems to be the best option.  

 

Cheers.

Jennifer

[Porthos]

Just now, jnottingham said:

Seeing that a daily scan is unnecessary gives me a massive relief. 

A daily scan is fine. Just not a full custom everything scan.

Actually I set my clients with a daily quick scan and the default threat scan weekly.

 

[Porthos]

Quote

-Software Information-
Version: 4.3.0.98
Components Version: 1.0.1273

While your at it you can update Malwarebytes to the current version. 4.4.0

[jnottingham]

I am sorting it righhhht now!  :)

[jnottingham]

ooooo yeah.  I had no idea.  Thank you for that.