Avira update.exe. Really? or is it a virus?

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by Momster, Sep 30, 2010.

  1. Momster

    Momster Private E-2

    Hello. I trust all you MajorGeeks, so I'm asking here: Is Avira's update really and truly named update.exe? I just installed it and ZoneAlarm popped up with "update.exe". I'm the opposite of geek. I'm just a grandma trying to make sense of it, but to me, if this is really the updater, isn't it kinda retarded that they name the updater after a known problem? Please let me know. I Googled update.exe and I'm afraid to say "Okay! and Remember this setting and run updater.exe forever!"
    Thank you.
     
  2. dr.moriarty

    dr.moriarty Malware Super Sleuth Staff Member

    :)

    Welcome to MajorGeeks, Momster.

    Avira's updater is called "update.exe", found in my XP SP3 OS machine...C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir Desktop directory
    Malware writers often do this very thing - give their wares legit or similar filenames. That's why we check the "Properties" of suspect files, among other research on them.

    dr.m
     
  3. Momster

    Momster Private E-2

    Thank you for the welcome and your response, Dr. M. My old brain did finally figure out to do a search on my computer, but I found about 120 of them, most with $ and migs in the folder name in Windows. One was in an Avira folder, but how do I know which one is actually trying to do it's thing? I want to make sure I let the "good" one go ahead. Sorry, and thank you for your patience. Oh, I did Google that question, and discovered the Task Manager, but it just says it's in the "system" and that's not a good thing, right?
     
  4. dr.moriarty

    dr.moriarty Malware Super Sleuth Staff Member

    It should show up briefly in Task Manager only when actually updating.
    Only 120? :-D Searching my machine shows 237... with the vast majority being C:WINDOWS\$hf_mig$\KB9xxxxx\update - which are Windows Service Pack Setup files.
     
  5. Momster

    Momster Private E-2

    Yes, those are the file names I have too, so I must be okay. Thank you very much!
     
  6. dr.moriarty

    dr.moriarty Malware Super Sleuth Staff Member

    ;)

    You're very welcome!

    dr.m
     

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