2008/8/5 Johnny Kewl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Tomcat Users List" <users@tomcat.apache.org> > Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 11:09 PM > Subject: Re: Avast Antivirus and apache-tomcat-6.0.18.exe > > >> Mark Thomas wrote: >>> >>> Ангелин Лалев wrote: >>>> >>>> Apparently the address is from Bulgarian mirror, where I am >>>> automatically redirected when i load the >>>> http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi. >>>> The md5 sum is from there too. >>>> >>>> If the alert is reproducable on binaries from other mirrors that still >>>> don't mean it's a virus. >>>> I had false warnings with Avast before. >>> >>> Indeed. That is what I am trying to establish. >> >> I am as sure as I can be that this is a false positive. >> >> Mark > > Hi Mark, I think so to, I scanned the zips, scanned native binaries... > conclude either something has snuck onto the MS build machine, or Avast is > getting it wrong... I believe the later because it doesnt actually identify > the virus, Win32 gen seems to be a generic warning with no description... > But all this doesnt really matter... one cant recommend users ignore it, > Avast is popular... and its just the kind of thing competition will thrive > on... its negative marketing for TC. > It will probably go away with a slight mod to the build and I think it has > to be marked as urgent and the instant the next build is ready, its > replaced. > I would actually remove it... just the Win32 service... the zip is fine. > Regards > JK
I agree that a false positive from Avast shouldn't be ignored, but I think the correct solution is for someone @apache.org to contact Avast and ask them to either explain what the problem is or remove Tomcat from their virus definitions. Sometimes the problem is caused by the installer program. There have been cases where the anti-virus guys mistakenly extract a signature from the installer program rather than the from the malware itself, which causes false positives on other programs using the same installer. Just a guess, but it seems likely here because Tomcat uses the popular open-source Nullsoft installer. -- Len
