Malwarebytes problems

[booster]

I have been an Mbam user for many years without issue, and have the "lifetime" premium on our computers, from back when you could buy it for the life of the computer instead of yearly. It has always worked well.

A few months ago, after an update, it would start to shut off the real time protection, and not be able to restart it. It was a very common issue per searches. They went through bunches of changes, and really hosed things up, making it worse and worse. The latest is truly bad.

DW's laptop got all the updates to get past the monitoring issue, but then wouldn't be able to even open the program. Using Mbamclean to remove the program wouldn't work as it would start, but never finish, and not show in task manager. It would only close as a force when shutting down.

It was due anyway, so I totally wiped the computer and did a total reinstall of everything, including Windows. Got it all up and running, much faster than before, and all was good.

I did a full system image before I put Mbam back on from a fresh download from their site. The next day, Mbam won't open, and Mbam clean again will not run or stop until shutting down. The computer got horribly slow, to the point of being able to type 5 characters before they would show up in a new text entry field and it might take 3-4 tries to get mouse clicks to work.

So you wind up with a borderline unusable computer, and you can't update or remove the Mbam. I tried running in safe mode, and Mbam would run. Bbam clean also started, but did the same thing as before, running until the computer was shut down. It did remove some stuff, but not all. Configsys still showed an Bbam tray reference as active, for instance. Computer was still slow, mouse issues, and delay of characters.

I restored my system image from before the Mbam install, and the computer is right back up to speed, and working well, so definitely the Mbam, as that is all that changed.

It almost appears as if they are monitoring actions like keystrokes and mouse clicks, and the monitoring is messing up their data and speed, causing problems.

At this point, I would have to say to everyone to not install Mbam until things get fixed, and if you have an older version, don't update it. It also makes one wonder if their download is infected and shutting off the protection and updates, and maybe even doing keystroke monitoring.

Very disappointing and a lot of wasted work here, for sure. They used to be so very good.

[Mike]

I've used their free version for over a year without any of the symptoms you've experienced, but real time protection isn't included. I typically ran it standalone when I suspected a malware infection was causing some other problem. It always ran it's scans without problems and actually spotted a PuP or something else once in a while. I'm running Win10 Creators Update (V1703?), and I also used to run 3rd party AV and Firewalls, but shortly after the prior upgrade to whatever it was, decided to run vanilla Windows AV/Firewall apps, and so far, so good. Removing 3rd party software has decreased boot time, and I haven't experienced any other (detected) issues to date.

[mkguitar]

for those with an interest in security- the "Security Now" podcast is great.

each episode will start with warnings or comments on updates- and it can get very deep.

co-host Steve Gibson actually coined the phrase malware

video or audio available:

https://twit.tv/shows/security-now


good practices, never click on links in an email

gmail will block much spam and scam you'll never see it.
yahoo and aol are always insecure

for my wife and Mother ( who destroyed a number of desktops clicking on links) they use ipads and are sandboxed from scripting and exploits

Mike

[VinMarlow]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

for those with an interest in security- the "Security Now" podcast is great.

each episode will start with warnings or comments on updates- and it can get very deep.

co-host Steve Gibson actually coined the phrase malware

video or audio available:

https://twit.tv/shows/security-now


good practices, never click on links in an email

gmail will block much spam and scam you'll never see it.
yahoo and aol are always insecure

for my wife and Mother ( who destroyed a number of desktops clicking on links) they use ipads and are sandboxed from scripting and exploits

Mike

I agree, links in e-mails can be very risky. It's better to avoid clicking them at all cost than receiving a surprising amount of malware.