bitcoin: SAV reported bitcoind infected w Silly.218, crashed bitcoind (likely false positive)
OS: Win 7 x64 Bitcoin core: 0.9.1
While running bitcoind.exe --reindex:
c:\Program Files\Bitcoin\daemon>bitcoind.exe --reindex
Error: System error: Database I/O error
Symantec Anti Virus detected Silly.218 in chainstate\052878.sst
directory (other names under which the malware is known: Virus.DOS.Dutch_Tiny.163.a (Kaspersky), Silly.218 (Symantec), Tiny-Family #3 (Avira)). Hash of the pattern detected: E272F4FF4AD99D1C48C4888990893FC6193DB1CB9849C69B1710069BBD047E0D
As the file was automatically quarantined and deleted (I can’t change SAV default settings), that crashed bitcoind and corrupted the bitcoin DB.
Internet search on this yielded no results. This looks like a false positive.
About this issue
- Original URL
- State: closed
- Created 10 years ago
- Comments: 87 (64 by maintainers)
Please think about what a virus is: Executable code. There are only 3 ways in which data in a file can be executable on any operating system:
Conclusion: You are wasting your time discussing this. Contact Symantec to fix the false positive. They are obliged to do so: After all a virus scanner divides the world into “good” and “bad” software, which is a really judgmental thing to do, and someone who is that judgmental has a moral obligation to only judge against something which is really malicious, which Bitcoin isn’t in any way. It is their job to fix this.