Virus found in block - Anticad-4096

[jefferson7]

SHould I be worried?
And should i allow my AV program to delete the block? Will I have to download the whole thing again if i do?

[vh]

Put the directory in the exclude from scanning option.   Virus scanners look for "signatures" including some BTC addresses and the block chain will at some point also contain random sequence of characters that will inadvertently trigger it.

[jefferson7]

Thanks, can you be sure about that?

[ranochigo]

Thanks, can you be sure about that?

100%, I guarantee, as long as your Bitcoin Core is the official build, from the official website. Nothing in the chainstate is actually executed by the client and the antivirus only check parts of the signature for the match.

Are you still running the older versions of Bitcoin, the newer versions(>0.12.0) shouldn't have this issue.

[achow101]

Put the directory in the exclude from scanning option.   Virus scanners look for "signatures" including some BTC addresses and the block chain will at some point also contain random sequence of characters that will inadvertently trigger it.

It's actually not because of randomness. People have been intentionally embedding viruses (or their signatures) in the blockchain so that antivirus software are triggered.

[vh]

Put the directory in the exclude from scanning option.   Virus scanners look for "signatures" including some BTC addresses and the block chain will at some point also contain random sequence of characters that will inadvertently trigger it.

It's actually not because of randomness. People have been intentionally embedding viruses (or their signatures) in the blockchain so that antivirus software are triggered.

I hadn't considered that angle, but that makes better sense.  The DOS / STONED incident made for a good read.

[nrgBitmagic]

Put the directory in the exclude from scanning option.   Virus scanners look for "signatures" including some BTC addresses and the block chain will at some point also contain random sequence of characters that will inadvertently trigger it.

It's actually not because of randomness. People have been intentionally embedding viruses (or their signatures) in the blockchain so that antivirus software are triggered.

Does that mean if you whitelist Core wallet in your antivirus program, you leave your Core wallet open to virus? If so, what is the answer?
AVG quarantined my wallet and I had to whitelist it to get back into it.

[achow101]

Does that mean if you whitelist Core wallet in your antivirus program, you leave your Core wallet open to virus? If so, what is the answer?
AVG quarantined my wallet and I had to whitelist it to get back into it.

No. None of the data in the blockchain is ever executed, so even if there is a virus there, it cannot do anything to Core nor anything to your computer as it is never actually run.