AVG Antivirus Wrongly Detects iTunes as Malware

Free antivirus software of AVG momentarily prevented users from accessing iTunes during the 4th week of July 2009 after it labeled the iTunes program as a Trojan, AVG stated on July 27, 2009.

Spanning a time-period of 5 hours starting at 4pm on July 24, 2009, users of AVG were blocked from getting to iTunes on account of the bogus alert.

The reports state that AVG users received a warning that iTunesRegistry.dll and iTunes.dll were infected with Small.BOG the Trojan program despite the malware apparently being non-existent.

AVG customers, however, alerted the company who posted their complaints on iTunes and AVG forums.

Siobhan MacDermott, AVG Spokesperson, said that AVG found the fake warning within the antivirus product that pertained to certain local elements of iTunes, but the problem was rectified in five hours, as reported by CNetNews on July 27, 2009. MacDermott added that AVG wished to apologize to all its customers for any trouble caused to them due to the false detection.

Confirming that the alert was fake, the company said that a new update for its virus database led the AVG security software to detect iTunes as a Trojan. However, AVG instantly issued a fresh update for its virus database that rectified the problem, the security firm added.

The security specialists stated - AVG represented an antivirus product from AVG Technologies that was known for detecting viruses to a high degree. Therefore, it was unbelievable that AVG would commit an error of this kind with the popular iTunes program. Thus, it was greatly possible that some disappointed staff member of AVG did a mischief, the specialists evaluated.

They further stated that users shouldn't quarantine or isolate the iTunes files, since after cleaning them, they would not run nor a re-installer fix them.

Additionally, the specialists said that although irregular, false positives did occur. In 2008, AVG labeled ZoneAlarm as a malicious program together with a file for Windows OS as a stealthy Trojan. In early July 2009, antivirus software of Computer Associates inadvertently detected a file for Windows XP as a destructive virus.

Related article: APACS Reports phishing On The Rise

» SPAMfighter News - 8/14/2009