Temporary Immunization

[BobxT]

You have misread what I posted..

AVAST WAS completely DISABLED when I ran my SpyBot immunisation (check system then update) test. <--**

And I also ran with a restored original blank, default, Windows 7 host file.

--
Repeated running of SpyBot Immunisation ALWAYS comes up with the same error message, so nothing is being fixed yet SpyBot always concludes with saying it is fixed.

Additionally, I always have Avast set everywhere to ASK and does not do ANYTHING automatically.

[Zenobia]

Yes, I did miss that. Okay, you can open a support ticket:
https://www.safer-networking.org/sup...ket/technical/

[KateAkaGunner]

both 2.6 and 1.6 say they need updating...i update go back and check again and it says i need to update the 4 issues

I have Windows 10 64 bit

please help

[Sueska]

Temporary Immunization

When I run an immunization check, I get this message:

"221930 of 221934 entries are already immunized, but 4 are still unprotected!"

Then I apply immunization, after which I get this message:

"All 221934 entries are immunized!"

Then I exit Spybot, relaunch Spybot, and run immunization again. Afterwards, this is the message Spybot displays:

"221930 of 221934 entries are already immunized, but 4 are still unprotected!"

Then I apply immunization again, which results in this message:

"All 221934 entries are immunized!"

Each time I repeat this sequence of actions, I get the same results. I am running Spybot as the Administrator. I am using Spybot 2.4. My OS is 32 bit Windows Vista. Is there any more information that Safer-Networking would like me to provide?

My Solution was to Uninstall Avast
Same issue was running Avast antivirus on the PC that had problems. I copied the host file and compared the host file of another PC running Spybot Search and Destroy which did not have problems This PC was running MS Defender. The host file from the PC running Avast (which stated 4 unprotected) did indeed have four entries less than the PC which had 0 unprotected. The comparison of host files revealed that the missing host file entries had the word avast in the address. (variations download-avast & telecharger-avast) By the way I checked these websites and they are suspected of being bad sites. So the Spybot folks are 100% right and Avast is wrong to delete the entries. Disabling Avast does not correct the problem. Avast had to be totally uninstalled to correct this. In fact even after removing Avast, I had to immunize and recheck a few times before the issue went away. Also as a side note, once Avast was uninstalled I got a pop-up from Spybot indicating that the problem could be due to a 3rd party antivirus or firewall. This helpful message did not appear until after Avast was uninstalled.

[BobxT]

I can confirm the report by Sueska.

But as he did bot include the actual names and further details, I show them here...

These 4 are not present and if added will be removed by Avast, thereby producing the error in Spybot.
www.download-avast.com
download-avast.com
telecharger-avast.com
www.telecharger-avast.com

However, I am keeping Avast and Spybot and this confirms my earlier assumption that it is largely a cosmetic problem although not the fault of Spybot. I would like to know the reasoning behind the Spybot team's determining that these TWO Avast servers are considered malware or Spyware.

The first would seem by it's name to be relevant to product downloading. Perhaps these are the servers that push out the pop-up panels in Avast Free..? At the moment this is my assumption and if true a very small price to pay.

BTW, anyone thinking of raising a Ticket for Spybot support, I suggest you don't bother. Support is completely clueless and don't even bother to read or consider any submission logically. You are better off sticking with this Forum.

My Solution was to Uninstall Avast
Same issue was running Avast antivirus on the PC that had problems. I copied the host file and compared the host file of another PC running Spybot Search and Destroy which did not have problems This PC was running MS Defender. The host file from the PC running Avast (which stated 4 unprotected) did indeed have four entries less than the PC which had 0 unprotected. The comparison of host files revealed that the missing host file entries had the word avast in the address. (variations download-avast & telecharger-avast) By the way I checked these websites and they are suspected of being bad sites. So the Spybot folks are 100% right and Avast is wrong to delete the entries.

Disabling Avast does not correct the problem.

Avast had to be totally uninstalled to correct this. In fact even after removing Avast, I had to immunize and recheck a few times before the issue went away. Also as a side note, once Avast was uninstalled I got a pop-up from Spybot indicating that the problem could be due to a 3rd party antivirus or firewall. This helpful message did not appear until after Avast was uninstalled.

[Sueska]

Thank you for validating my research BobxT, however I purposely did not list the full websites for fear someone may click on a potentially malicious link. Web of Trust has negative reviews for these websites plus Spybot also included them in their list. I checked Whois and cannot validate that these websites are associated with Avast. If a site has the word download + a dash + a domain name, that does not mean that this site is necessarily affiliated with that domain. For example download (dash) google.com is not a google server or part of google's domain. I do agree with you that users can continue to use both products and ignore the message if they want. Even though the websites Avast removed from the host file might be legitimate, why take a chance? Best to go to the official https://www.avast.com directly.

[AnimaNomad]

Hi Guys,

I'm having the same problem below, and I've done some digging, I'll show you my findings:

Temporary Immunization

When I run an immunization check, I get this message:

"221930 of 221934 entries are already immunized, but 4 are still unprotected!"

Then I apply immunization, after which I get this message:

....

I've updated my Spybot Search & Destroy 2.6 with Admin rights to the latest signatures followed by a complete immunization
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cY...bXCdRP6jMej2UM

Since it has complaint about incomplete immunization of the hosts file, I did get rid of all Spybot Search & Destroy hosts file entries
using sed to remove the entries and check that they were reaaly gone with grep.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZJ..._i94c6qCYLrxUY

Then ran Immunization check, and of course, it found out that it the hosts file did not have any antispyware entries. (just a program crosschecking)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m-...M_kjWr27UxGoFV

Then I did run the whole Immunization again, and looked for how many entries Spybot Search & Destroy inserted in the hosts file.
Although it seems to have worked, it didn't, because if you looked closely, it did inserted just 4 entries short (15629 - 4) in my case.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=159...8XXdlJl7OvEAyS


So, in my opinion, there are two possible scenarios:

First: The hosts file served by Spybot Update is missing 4 entries.
Second: The number of lines to crosscheck in the Immunization proccess is 4 entries higher than it should.

Independently of the cause, Spybot Search & Destroy 2.6 Developers should take a look at it and sort it out.

Best regards,
Nomad

[TheOwner]

Hello,
is here any reason why download-avast is blocked by immunisation? Is malware site or legitimate Avast site? Thank you.

[Zenobia]

I had a peek at the site using Google cache, but I couldn't tell anything from that. I also did a search on the site to see if any info would come up, but couldn't find anything relevant there either.
You could ask Support about it. Technical Support has "Technical queries related to Spybot", so I presume that might be the one to use to ask:
https://www.safer-networking.org/sup...ket/technical/

[Traveller11]

Hi Folks!

In 2017 I had this 'problem' and it took some time between Zenobia and myself to resolve it.........
BUT in the end it was 'found' or at least the cause was and it was rectified.

The darn thing just happened again 48hrs ago after my AV/Firewall Updated, so off I went to find the answer from the first time, and it went like this.........

=================================================================================================

Passive Protection Not Working!

Finally got the answer in which the 4 outstanding 'Hosts' files get sorted out!

As I am using Zone Alarm I went into the 'Firewall' side of ZA and then 'View Details', then 'Settings' then click on 'Advanced Settings' and 'UNCHECK' the 'Lock hosts file'.

Then come out of ZA and run Immunization in Spybot, the outstanding files that will not clear immunization are then (or should be) resolved!

When that is done DON'T FORGET to go back into ZA and RE-CHECK the 'Lock hosts file' to continue your protection in ZA.
=================================================================================================

So if you have this 'problem' then it might be worth checking your Firewall as it seems that is where the 'problem' resides which causes the failure in SpyBot Immunization

Good luck!