Possible false flagging by anti-malware or anti-virus

[IFIYGD]

I had no issues, but I have the entire game folder whtie listed in my security software. But after seeing people reporting the game refusing to even launch, I decided to test security software, on a hunch.

I removed the game from both MalWareBytes' and AVG Ultimate's whitelists. Both flagged the same thing, only my AVG quarantined the files due to my custom program settings. Game launched and ran fine after adding it back to both whitelists and doing a hard reboot of my machine to hard-set the charnges again.

Here is a screenshot of the MalWarebytes report (MalWareBytes Free, latest version, PII for my machine left off the screenshot, obviously)...

http://prntscr.com/jv7wfi

Not sure if it will help tech get the files removed from AV/AMW flagging lists, and sorry it took me while to get around to posting the report here.

[Timothy]

Antivirus Quarantied tld.exe?

I've never had this happen before. My antivirus was installed by a VERY reputable local computer service. I just did a clean reinstall of the game and scanned it again and nothing showed up. Was it just a false positive?

[IFIYGD]

yeah, tend to happen with a bunch of games. Changes to the .exe or .dll files will make some anti-virus and anti-malware program falsely flag and quarantine the game files.

False positive, just restore the file(s) from the quarantine and add the entire game folder to the exceptions list or whitelist for your software.

[funguy]

Norton Antivirus removed my TLD.exe for suspisious activity. I wonder if they are using a game monitoring feedback thing (spyware).

[hinterland_tech_help]

Hi IFIYGD,
Can you confirm that you're on the latest version of your anti-virus software for both Malwarebytes and AVG Ultimate? Also, there's no side-loaded mods or anything else being run outside of the base game when launched? We thank you for your answers as we try to narrow down the potential cause of this issue.

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by hinterland_tech_help:

Hi IFIYGD,
Can you confirm that you're on the latest version of your anti-virus software for both Malwarebytes and AVG Ultimate? Also, there's no side-loaded mods or anything else being run outside of the base game when launched? We thank you for your answers as we try to narrow down the potential cause of this issue.

Yep. Latest MWB version at the time, though it did update just hours after I ran the scan, and no longer flags the file in the newest version.

AVG Ultimate is always kept up-to-date on my machine. No third party Mods used, not my thing. But I know you need to check. AVG has also since updated, I have not run a deep scan since, with the game folder removed from the exceptions list. So, I am unsure if the latest AVG will flag the game file again or not. I am thinking not, since VirusTotal reports AVG recognizing the file as safe now.

The type of suspicious program that both used to name it, were generic labels, used to flag possible zero-day malware kits, so both programs falsely believed there is a possible zero-day exploit kit dropped the main .exe file, it appears.

The current detection status on VirusTotal is this:
https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/afec31f1ba649eafd0146611a3e62323290d6aa6c354e9d9d1c77fcb6896ba79/detection

Most security software is now calling it safe, 3 are still flagging, and that is only the software tha VT includes in their reports. it was a much higher number at the time of my scans, but it looks like MWB and AVG have cleared the file and marked it safe.

not sure how else to help, this is a frequent thing with games when they update, security software is over-reactive and over-protective these days. Which is a good thing for the consumer but a real PITA for you guys.