New Gmod virus? *fixed*

[Death2all546]

When I started Gmod up my anti-virus system said that gmod had a virus and put it in the chest. I verified integrity for gmod, it redownloaded 3 files, and when I tried to start gmod again my anti-virus deleted the same file. When I try to start Gmod now it says "Failed to start game (missing executable). Can someone tell me whether or not the file is really a virus or if my anti-virus is just being overly cautious? I use Avast.

[evark]

Yup, same thing happening to me.

[linus]

I feel like I remember reading that Avast thinks .exe files are viruses or something along those lines. But I can't remember :/

[Death2all546]

Just refound how to find the chest for it. The file is
Name - Original location
hl2.exe - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\COMMON\GarrysMod

[linus]

hl2.exe isn't a virus. It's what, in my not tech-savvy terms, runs and starts up Gmod. It is essential to run the game.

[Death2all546]

Publicado originalmente por wooper the supreme overlord:

hl2.exe isn't a virus. It's what, in my not tech-savvy terms, runs and starts up Gmod. It is essential to run the game.

I've played Garry's mod for a very long time, it's the second game I ever bought (if you could the Orange Box set as one full game. The Orange Box set is basically TF2, Portal, Half Life 2, ep 1, and ep 2.)
Why is it just now starting to call it a virus?
I even played Garry's Mod until about 2:00 am last night (or technically, about 17 hours ago)

[linus]

Publicado originalmente por Death the Reaper:

Publicado originalmente por wooper the supreme overlord:

hl2.exe isn't a virus. It's what, in my not tech-savvy terms, runs and starts up Gmod. It is essential to run the game.

I've played Garry's mod for a very long time, it's the second game I ever bought (if you could the Orange Box set as one full game. The Orange Box set is basically TF2, Portal, Half Life 2, ep 1, and ep 2.)
Why is it just now starting to call it a virus?
I even played Garry's Mod until about 2:00 am last night (or technically, about 17 hours ago)

I wish I could tell you why, but I'm not very tech-savvy, as I mentioned in my previous comment. :/

[Death2all546]

Publicado originalmente por wooper the supreme overlord:

Publicado originalmente por Death the Reaper:

I've played Garry's mod for a very long time, it's the second game I ever bought (if you could the Orange Box set as one full game. The Orange Box set is basically TF2, Portal, Half Life 2, ep 1, and ep 2.)
Why is it just now starting to call it a virus?
I even played Garry's Mod until about 2:00 am last night (or technically, about 17 hours ago)

I wish I could tell you why, but I'm not very tech-savvy, as I mentioned in my previous comment. :/

In that case, can anyone give me a 100% garantee that there is NO virus right now? I get a little paranoid when it comes to viruses.
I actually stopped using internet browsers altogether for almost a year after Chrome got a malware virus, that when removed prevented Chrome from starting up. I had to use a different anti-virus to remove it since Avast didn't notice it. Now I have "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" for stuff Avast misses. It really helped, firefox was so full of malware you couldn't look at the screen. Now I feel fine using firefox (since I never got around to fixing the Chrome issue).

[Death2all546]

TL;DR, I want a 100% garauntee that there is NO virus. Because I'm paranoid when it comes to a virus on my computer.

[xxDavoodooxx]

I just had this same problem, I use Avast as well. All I did to fix it was to right click it in library and verify integrity of game cache. It reaquired 2 files and now it starts.

[Rejex]

Publicado originalmente por Death the Reaper:

TL;DR, I want a 100% garauntee that there is NO virus. Because I'm paranoid when it comes to a virus on my computer.

If it is saying that hl2.exe is a virus, when you run the game after sealing that "virus" in the "vault" does the game still run? If not, then it's just the usual .exe file the Garry's mod uses to run, as it is an hl2 mod. I can almost guarantee that you don't have a virus if that is the case, it's likely a false positive, something a AV detects as a virus when it isn't, you can tell the AV to make an exception for hl2.exe if that is the case.

I'm not very tech savvy, but this is all i know about the subject, hope it helps!

(also if im wrong somebody correct me)

[Death2all546]

Publicado originalmente por xxDavoodooxx:

I just had this same problem, I use Avast as well. All I did to fix it was to right click it in library and verify integrity of game cache. It reaquired 2 files and now it starts.

When I verified integrity, it needed 3 files.
I just did it again, it said it needed 1. I haven't tried to start it yet.

[Death2all546]

I tried it. Gmod seems to run fine up to the main screen. So unless I have a problem with joining a server, this should be nothing now. I will post back if someone says something though.

[Death2all546]

Publicado originalmente por 0x42:

For clarification:

The false positive (term used to identify a suspicious file quarrantined by an anti-virus for the sole purpose of keeping a user safe when that file isn't malicious) caused by Garry's Mod's distribution of hl2.exe is just a false positive. Facepunch developers have confimred that the obfuscation program they use cause this false positive, as it makes generated obfuscated files appear suspicious to anti-virus utilites.

Add a filter for hl2.exe in avast. You will not have to worry about any viruses; Valve would have pulled GMod from the store if it were malicious.

Well, there was that one time with the Cough virus. I don't remember hearing about Gmod being pulled when that happened. Though I never really checked, I assume it would be mentioned. A game being removed from the store during a virus seems like a big thing.

[Death2all546]

Publicado originalmente por 0x42:

Publicado originalmente por Death the Reaper:

Well, there was that one time with the Cough virus. I don't remember hearing about Gmod being pulled when that happened. Though I never really checked, I assume it would be mentioned. A game being removed from the store during a virus seems like a big thing.

The *cough* virus was out of the developer's control. This was an engine-wide exploit, and therefore Valve couldn't pull GMod off the Store because of it.

So basically, not just Gmod was affected, but anything using the same engine?

[TheUnholyAdventurer]

never heard of the cough virus,what happend to computers??