Malware and Steam, and what to do now

[Shad0wstr1k3]

Hi, I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but it did not seem to match up to the types of questions asked in the "Computer Issues" Thread, so here goes.

I was in the process of buying "Legends of Grimrock" off of steam. I had entered my paypal details and had just clicked confirm payment. Steam then went on to the next store page, saying that your purchase went through etc etc, when Avast pops up informing me that it has blocked some malware, located in the steam folder. I could not give the exact name or location, only that it was some-where in the steam folder, and was a .tmp file.

So, I need help. What precautions should I take to make sure nothing else goes wrong, I have no idea what I should or need to do.

Thanks in advance.

[Legion]

Hi, I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but it did not seem to match up to the types of questions asked in the "Computer Issues" Thread, so here goes.

I was in the process of buying "Legends of Grimrock" off of steam. I had entered my paypal details and had just clicked confirm payment. Steam then went on to the next store page, saying that your purchase went through etc etc, when Avast pops up informing me that it has blocked some malware, located in the steam folder. I could not give the exact name or location, only that it was some-where in the steam folder, and was a .tmp file.

So, I need help. What precautions should I take to make sure nothing else goes wrong, I have no idea what I should or need to do.

Thanks in advance.

Possible it was just a false positive.
However you can never be too sure.
Search online.
Someone with the same antivirus may have had the same issue.

[Shad0wstr1k3]

Thanks Legion, seems it was just a false positive, as loads of other people seem to have had the same problem.

But I'm curious, what would one do if it was not a false positive?

[Legion]

Thanks Legion, seems it was just a false positive, as loads of other people seem to have had the same problem.

But I'm curious, what would one do if it was not a false positive?

Pave over the area with cement.

Well software exploits have so many ways to get in and cause all kinds of menace.
You could try a alternate virus checker.
Remove steam and delete all data and temp files.
Format the drive.

Now look the best offense is not to try get rid of it once it's there.
Keep your defense software software and OS up to date.
Try to avoid using older version of software like steam and skype.
Hackers tend to find vulnerabilities.
And exploit them when you update.
This is why that 5 year old copy of firefox for example must go...

I could go into the detail of how hackers even fake webpages to re-route traffic.

The best is to just keep critical systems and online software up to date.
And if you do feel look for actual symptoms of an infection before paving over it with the windows disc at hand.

[Jeronkey]

If you do get a minor infection though, depending on the type, you can update Avast! then disconnect from the net and do a deep scan overnight to pick up any infections. You could also use something like ESET Online Scan or Trend Micro House Call for a second opinion. I recently used the online scanner from ESET and it worked like a charm on a computer I was fixing.

They'll usually manage to disinfect any normal threats. If they can't, then you can do the full reformat that Legion mentioned above.

[Wesley]

But I'm curious, what would one do if it was not a false positive?

Generally you'd add it to the exceptions list and tell your AV to not scan inside that folder ever again. False positives aren'y that rare, generally AV tests put a false positive of 10% as acceptable, with 5% being the closest you can possibly get but that only works in a controlled environment.

We're lucky that its not 1998 and some schmuck decided to change the code of the AV to think that the entire /system32 folder is chock full of viruses.

[Legion]

Generally you'd add it to the exceptions list and tell your AV to not scan inside that folder ever again. False positives aren'y that rare, generally AV tests put a false positive of 10% as acceptable, with 5% being the closest you can possibly get but that only works in a controlled environment.

We're lucky that its not 1998 and some schmuck decided to change the code of the AV to think that the entire /system32 folder is chock full of viruses.

He said NOT a false positive.
But yeah i remember a few of those viruses from 1998.
Nasty things.

Most viruses these days focus on exploiting user more than the computer itself.
Twice as potent actually.

But alot is being done to secure win7 lately since the flame incident win defender is even getting a myriad of updates.