Virus detected in the blockchain

[Mountaingoat]

I'm not sure what the right forum for this is, here, or in the Technical forum, but I figure it'll get read more here, so I'm posting here...

My computer (Windows 7 64 bit) was acting strange so I just ran a full virus scan.  It detected two viruses and one of them just happened to be in the blockchain.  It was detected in Bitcoin\Blocks\blk00129.dat.  Those of you running full nodes, especially on Windows, this would be a good time to run a virus scanner.  Avast caught this, I can't comment on any others.

i think thats a false flag.

some crap virus scanners dont detect actual viruses, they just have lists of filenames, and it happens to be that a certain old virus from the 1990's had a filename called blk00129.dat.

i kinda remember someone posting about this last year

I know for a fact that Avast! is absolutely not a crap virus scanner.

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[btcxyzzz]

I'm not sure what the right forum for this is, here, or in the Technical forum, but I figure it'll get read more here, so I'm posting here...

My computer (Windows 7 64 bit) was acting strange so I just ran a full virus scan.  It detected two viruses and one of them just happened to be in the blockchain.  It was detected in Bitcoin\Blocks\blk00129.dat.  Those of you running full nodes, especially on Windows, this would be a good time to run a virus scanner.  Avast caught this, I can't comment on any others.

Dump that Winblows shit out of your house and understand Linux is worlds above that crap. Come on people, it's time that you understand what's the best OS.

[chanz]

It is your shitty antivirus for sure if not could be a worm infecting all your blocks and your avast only detected the blocks not the virus itself.
If you gona keep using windows atleast buy a good antivirus like kaspersky or mcafee then scan it with that.
and if you are still fishy about the blocks upload the blk file to virustotal.com and check it.

[jimcoin]

You're wasting resources scanning the blockchain. Just add the Bitcoin folder to your antiviruses exclusion list.

http://classroom.synonym.com/make-exclusions-avast-16518.html

[kokojie]

I'm not sure what the right forum for this is, here, or in the Technical forum, but I figure it'll get read more here, so I'm posting here...

My computer (Windows 7 64 bit) was acting strange so I just ran a full virus scan.  It detected two viruses and one of them just happened to be in the blockchain.  It was detected in Bitcoin\Blocks\blk00129.dat.  Those of you running full nodes, especially on Windows, this would be a good time to run a virus scanner.  Avast caught this, I can't comment on any others.

Then your virus scanner setting must be wrong, don't scan all files, just executable files.

Not a great idea either if you're relying on a virus scanner to keep you safe.  Malicious scripts can be run by opening non-executable files as well such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDF's, etc.  Virus scanners will sometimes catch these so should not be omitted from scans.

Virus scanners are pretty bad anyways.  Making a virus undetectable to any scanner is trivial.  I don't even bother installing a virus scanner at all, but rather I monitor my system's services, processes, network connections, etc.  If I feel that there is even a remote chance that an application or file is infected, it never leaves its own VM.

Virus scanners are not that stupid, DOC PPT XLS COM EXE VBS etc... are all considered "executable files", and will be scanned. But a .DAT file, you can't execute it by default, unless there's some 3rd party program installed that specifically make .DAT file executable.

[santaClause]

I'm not sure what the right forum for this is, here, or in the Technical forum, but I figure it'll get read more here, so I'm posting here...

My computer (Windows 7 64 bit) was acting strange so I just ran a full virus scan.  It detected two viruses and one of them just happened to be in the blockchain.  It was detected in Bitcoin\Blocks\blk00129.dat.  Those of you running full nodes, especially on Windows, this would be a good time to run a virus scanner.  Avast caught this, I can't comment on any others.

Then your virus scanner setting must be wrong, don't scan all files, just executable files.

Not a great idea either if you're relying on a virus scanner to keep you safe.  Malicious scripts can be run by opening non-executable files as well such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDF's, etc.  Virus scanners will sometimes catch these so should not be omitted from scans.

Virus scanners are pretty bad anyways.  Making a virus undetectable to any scanner is trivial.  I don't even bother installing a virus scanner at all, but rather I monitor my system's services, processes, network connections, etc.  If I feel that there is even a remote chance that an application or file is infected, it never leaves its own VM.

Virus scanners are not that stupid, DOC PPT XLS COM EXE VBS etc... are all considered "executable files", and will be scanned. But a .DAT file, you can't execute it by default, unless there's some 3rd party program installed that specifically make .DAT file executable.

There are viruses that are hidden in other files. For example someone could use macros in an excel spreadsheet to infect a virus into a computer. They are hidden in word documents and other similar types of files as well

[suatdu]

avast says virus to my mining software too...

[SF-Man]

avast says virus to my mining software too...

Since the day I started using anti-virus (avast).. It failed me a lot of times.

[CrackedLogic]

avast says virus to my mining software too...

AVG  also picks that up, i think most anti - viruses do.

[Kyt Dotson]

Also, the blockchain is not meant to be used as an executable, so even if a virus binary is stored there, it doesn't matter.

I think this is at the crux of the situation. The virus scanner could have mistaken a portion of the blockchain as having the same signature of some virus; but unless someone foolishly decided to clip out and execute the section (if it could run at all) nothing would happen.

[steve98210]

I think it is virus code purposely embedded in the blockchain that was detected by the antivirus.

[AGD]

[bithound]

Is it possible? What will happen if my blockchain gets the virus?

[novacn]

Virus in blockchain? It seems not even possible. What will the virus do? Double spend you coin? 

[Fortify]

Is it possible? What will happen if my blockchain gets the virus?

Read the thread before posting, it makes you look stupid. This is just an old virus signature that causes a red flag in old antivirus software.