Avira anti-virus detected components of its own application as potentially malign on Wednesday following a dodgy signature update.
Avira detected its own AESCRIPT.DLL library file as the previously obscure "TR/Spy.463227" strain of malware:
http://www.avira.com/en/support-threats-summary/tid/7142/tlang/enThe dodgy AntiVir virus definition file was quickly pulled and replaced with a new version – 7.11.16.146 – that resolves the problem, as explained in an official post on Avira's support forum here:
http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=137969Avira's own stats suggest 4,000 to 5,000 rogue detections:
http://www.avira.com/en/support-threats-statistics/tid/7142/tlang/en , suggesting that the problem was caught before it affected the vast majority of the user base of the freebie security scanner software, which has a user base of million. This is just as well because users hit by the false detection would have been left with hobbled systems.
False positives involving anti-virus software are all too common. Normally these involve application files or, more damagingly, Windows components. Avira's auto-immune false detection is worse still, but not unprecedented. CA had similar problems two years ago, for example.
(ElReg)