Why am I often getting antivirus settings modified/deselected by themselves ? ?

Eno-Scott · 2024-03-28T16:54:50+00:00

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I've recently uninstalled and reinstalled Bit defender Total Security on my OS using the native tools to do that,I've set the av to perform scans of boot sectors and archives ( enabling the maximum limit of size for that last one to search all the possible ones ) but when I close the software and after a while check the av settings again I often find these 2 options deselected...I've also create a password to protect the settings and I'm the only one that uses that PC,I don't have others antivirus softwares enabled apart from Malwarebytes free version that doesn't have real time protection enabled and I've enabled the Microsoft Defender's options to perform some additional scans in cooperation with BDTS .... So why I find these settings deselected by themselves so often and how could I solve that ?

P S : I've already opened a ticket for that with the assistance

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Alexandru_BD

Hello @Eno-Scott,

Are you running a scan while this happens? Some options are turned off during an active scan, so as not to interfere with the process.

But please do let us know what the Support engineers advise.

Regards,

Alex

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/337025#Comment_337025

I've seen that,but to be honest I've to ask you why the av do that? I mean if I want to check boot sectors for rootkits ( for ex. ) or the achives,why when I start a scan these options become disabled ? And considering that they're disabled during the scan the av checks for that ones?

Responding to your first: this time no,but like yo've explained I noticed that happens sometimes also during the scan (to be honest I've already have this issue in the past and I've opened a ticket before for it)

Alexandru_BD

What type of scan are you running? And where do these options get deactivated, in the Bitdefender shield, or in the scan settings? Bitdefender shield is on-access scan, quick/system/custom scan is on-demand scan.

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2056/

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/337025#Comment_337025

I was running a full system scan and I've founded them deactivated,that was the descripion of what happened this time:

1.Opened Bitdefender av

2.start full system scan

3.check in the scan settings (these ones),I've done that because I've alrready noticed that issue before

.4 founded the setings that I've said disabled

In addiction to that :

.Ive also seen these options disabled in the report at the end of the scan sometimes

.I've noticed that also some others function been disabled sometime ,they are : Alert mode , the option to recheck the antivirus files quarantined with better,scan of CD/DVD,USB and mapped network drives (alert mode seems to be the most often disabled )

Tailer

I got exactly the same issue as Eno Scott had. I’m using similar settings and after scan starts settings are changed by itself.
And its confusing because I don’t know was the system scanned correct or not: (

Alexandru_BD

Hello @Tailer,

When they change by themselves, are they grayed out, like shown in the article below, or they simply deactivate and you still have the option to reactivate them?

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/114762/

Alexandru_BD

Pinging @Eno-Scott here as well, let's see if he comes back and if he managed to solve this somehow.

Tailer

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/352848#Comment_352848

Hello!

They are not greyed out, they are getting previous state. And after scan is completed they are back to state that I have set.

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/352849#Comment_352849

To be honest I'm still having this issue,not in the Antivirus > Advanced settings but in the settings related to the Quarantine,I'm seeing that every time that I open this module the rule related to making an exception for restored files goes from on to off in like a second … In additionsome times ago the AV founded a threat that I've quarantined and after that at the restart of the OS it was disappeared from there ..

I didn't opened a ticket for this one because I've had some other already opened but now that you ask me an opinion about that specific topic I suppose that could be appropriate reporting that here on this thread,in my case the specfic threat was :

On your opinion should I do some checks about that ?

Alexandru_BD

@Eno-Scott thanks for sharing this. Yes, I think the behavior should be reported to Bitdefender Support. Have them check this and maybe we can further expand on the topic here, should you wish to share their findings with us as well. Now, regarding what @Tailer mentioned earlier, about using Microsoft Defender in parallel, I don't exclude an interference. The problem when actively using multiple security solutions on the same device is that sometimes this practice may degrade performance, because multiple antiviruses installed will always compete for the same resources. Furthermore, this may even prevent proper malware detection, so the functionality could be affected, modules turning on and off, other conflicts, system crashes, and software errors, etc.
The general rule of thumb is to have a single antivirus installed. Having multiple antivirus programs running at the same time will not make your computer more secure, on the contrary. I remember that AV-comparatives also released an article about this a while ago:

https://www.av-comparatives.org/why-you-should-never-have-multiple-antivirus-programs-on-your-computer/

For this reason, during the setup, Bitdefender identifies other security products that were previously installed. To ensure these different security solutions will not cause difficulties, it is recommended to uninstall them.
Now, I can't be 100% sure that Windows Defender, or Malwarebytes for that matter are actually interfering with Bitdefender's security modules, but since they were mentioned, I would try to remove/disable them both and test Bitdefender without them, to check if its security modules still turn off by themselves.

Otherwise, this would be a task for Support, as they can collect some logs from the device using the dedicated Support tool and find out exactly what happens there. Here we can only make assumptions based on what we know so far..

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/352960#Comment_352960

@Alexandru_BD I'm still trying to resolve with support,I'm having problems with sending the file generated with the Support Tool,that's why I was advised to do a remote support session,for the time being I noticed that indeed I had once again the modules related to archive scanning and boot sector scanning disabled a while ago ,in addition I also had notifications related to possible indicators of compromise from the antivirus (related to e.g. automatic media execution,digital signature scanning,etc),I reported everything .
I've also encountered possible problems with VPN (it starts up by itself even though it shouldn't) and internet protection (e.g. I don't see Safe Search ticks in searches),I've already tried following the instructions in Bitdefender's guides to fix it,but it seems with poor results ...
For the moment,in addition to the Support Tool the support asked me to send them a file generated with BDSYS which I correctly sent ...
My PC is old so I do not exclude that these problems may be due to that ...
Regarding the possible conflict between different AV solutions,in my case I only have BDTS active but in the Windows security settings I chose to also do support scans with Defender (since there was this possibility), I don't think this can be the case of an interference, in fact the only solution in real time is precisely Bitdefender ... as an antimalware support I still use Malwarebytes Free (I don't know if you remember the thread I had published in this regard long ago about it) .. what do you think?
If I have updates following the remote session and you will be interested, I could let you know what they will tell me!

Alexandru_BD

Hi and thanks for getting back here.

Regarding the VPN, I would first look at the Auto-connect settings to find out if it's set to connect automatically in certain scenarios. Under General settings, check if the VPN is set to launch automatically at device startup. Then, go to Auto-connect settings and see if any of the options available there are enabled, for example "connect VPN at Windows startup" or whenever using unsecure Wi-Fi networks, peer to peer apps, specific applications or websites, or specific website categories.

As for the issues you have already reported to the Support teams, I think the remote session should normally reveal the root cause. Using Malwarebytes should cause no problems, in my opinion.
Sure, feel free to update this thread anytime with your findings and I'm sorry we couldn't do more here. It's just that some situations require more advanced troubleshooting and remote assistance, and this can only be achieved by the Support teams, as they have the required tools to do it.

Regards

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353511#Comment_353511

I set the settings to prevent VPN from activating at startup,as for the possible scenarios in which it should activate automatically I chose these settings:

Screenshot (1246-1).png

Screenshot (1247-1).png

Screenshot (1248-1).png

Screenshot (1249-1).png

However at the time it activates I don't feel like I'm using peer to peer apps or browsing any of the categories of sites listed...so how come it starts itself?
Could it possibly be due to some software redirecting my connection running in the background not being detected by the antivirus that I am not aware of?

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

The Auto-connect settings look fine. Pay attention to when it connects exactly, on which websites, as this could be a hint. Or disable the auto-connect for all website categories and peer-to-peer apps and see if it still connects automatically, to exclude a possible bug. Maybe some websites that you are accessing fall into one of the categories displayed there, so the VPN connects automatically then, since it believes it has a match. But maybe those pages don't actually fall into the respective categories at all, and in this case we can talk about a connection initiated incorrectly. I would point this out to Support as well.
If the antivirus doesn't find anything suspicious during the scan, but you suspect a browser redirect, you can reset your browser, clear cache & cookies and look for any unwanted browser extensions that might redirect in the background, although there should be clear signs of this, I mean, you should see the url there, or at least a pop-up, as this is what usually happens in adware scenarios.

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353533#Comment_353533

Hi,but this doesn't happen when I use a browser,normally I notice it happens right when I start the PC..I could as you said try disabling the options to use VPN in particular categories of sites and with the peer to peer apps ( which I don't use by the way .. ) to try and see if it is a related bug, however I don't think it is this .. as far as the extensions, checking in the browser settings I don't seem to have noticed any weirdness ... My suspicion is that there may be as I already mentioned to you something that redirects the connection to a certain category among those listed for the automatic startup of the VPN and that starts when the PC starts,could you suggest me in this regard what further checks I could do ( for example check certain registry keys or policies ) ?

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

I wouldn't fiddle with the registry, I don't think that would be necessary. Have you tried to reinstall the VPN? This is worth trying as well. Also, check what apps are set to launch at startup, this may reveal more information.
Any updates from Support?

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353697#Comment_353697

@Alexandru_BD I have already uninstalled and reinstalled VPN at least 3 times,these are the applications set to start at startup :

Screenshot (1279-1).png

Screenshot (1279-2).png

Checking in Task manager it's the same thing,checking in msconfig.exe I see several active services,about some I have doubts,but not knowing what they might be for ,I wouldn't know whether or not to disable them for the time being

As for Bitdefender support,I still don't have any updates on that...what do you think ?
Really there are no further checks I could do ?
Maybe even just take a look without changing any settings to policies and registry keys related to PC startup ?

dvsls

The scan you’ve started uses its own settings and configuration, which is why certain options are grayed out during its execution. If you want to run a custom on-demand scan with specific parameters, configure it up front and let it complete; checking your antivirus’s real-time scan settings while that on-demand scan is running won’t have any effect.

This behavior is normal.

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353786#Comment_353786

I don't know if you're referring to me or to the other user who replied,in my case however, I didn't find the problem only when scanning,but also and more often when checking the settings ( which I do often ),moreover as I also wrote in previous posts I also detected other possible signs of malfunction/compromise ( for example the av notifications that I already described or the unusual behavior of the VPN ),I'm in contact with support and I'm waiting for their further answers about

Eno-Scott

@Alexandru_BD After doing a first remote session with support here is the summary : they advised me to keep trying to send the result generated by the support tool using Bitdefender's file sharing platform, unfortunately so far I have not been able to send it to them due to network problems that I can't solve ... They have advised me to uninstall Malwarebytes ( despite the fact that I have installed the free version without real-time protection ) and the other programs that I don't use ( which are very few ) , they have advised me of the commands ( which I know and execute already for quite some time having documented myself through the guides ) : chkdsk /f /r , dism /online /cleanup-image /check health,“/scan health,”/restore health,SFC /scannow . .they also advised me to empty the temp folder,do Windows updates and full system scans...unfortunately I already do all this for a long time (as well as other steps that I also learned from reading the guides on the Bitdefender site and explained to support) ..what do you think?

I also report that when I try to access the page http://www.upload.bitdefender.com to share the result of the support tool I get these errors with different browsers and in both normal and private mode : ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED , DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN .. How come in your opinion? How to solve ?

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353924#Comment_353924

Since you're experiencing issues uploading the file to https://upload.bitdefender.net/ , you can alternatively send a private message to @Alexandru_BD. You can either attach the logs directly in the message or upload them to a third-party file-sharing service such as:

https://wetransfer.com/ (maximum upload size: 2 GB)
https://www.upload.ee/ (maximum upload size: 100 MB)

Once uploaded, simply share the generated download link with him via private message. He may be able to forward the files to the appropriate support team handling your particular ticket ID.

Regards

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353962#Comment_353962

@Flexx Are you sure the site is ok ? Reading the reviews on Trustpilot I am seeing that it has a very low average rating,can I trust it in your opinion ?
Unfortunately I can't attach the file directly to the private message because it's too big so for now the only alternative among the ones you recommended seems to be precisely WeTransfer

Also I think the file is too big if the limit is 2 GB ...

Screenshot (1328-1).png

How could I solve it?

dvsls

You could try uploading the file to your own cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) and then share the link with the support team.

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353973#Comment_353973

I have personally used those websites for a couple of years now, even sharing various files with Bitdefender support through them. Nevertheless, you can use the website suggested by @dvsls in previous comment, as it offers more storage than the ones I mentioned.

Regards

Eno-Scott

@dvsls @Flexx I am trying to upload the file to Google Drive,the upload however has stopped already once (and it is very slow),would there be any possible way to speed up the upload somehow?
Usually to improve the connection I run these commands : ipconfig /release , ipconfig /flushdns ,ipconfig /renew ,netsh winsock reset,netsh int ip reset which I read on the guide to solve problems with Bitdefender VPN ( which I am not using now though ) ,or I disconnect and reconnect the router ....
What else could I try ? and why according to you the upload was interrupted ?

Also I tried again to check if I could send the file using the link https://www.upload.bitdefender.com/ ,however I always get the same connection errors,also I noticed that in the info about the certificate of the site in Edge it was indicated that the connection was not secure because the site did not have a certificate...

Screenshot (1333).png

Screenshot (1337).png

Unfortunately, the link they provided me for the secure file sharing platform is no longer valid (also the upload failed there too) and last time the site showed that there was a network error

Screenshot (1290-1).png

What to do ?

Alexandru_BD

Hi @Eno-Scott

Did you manage to solve this? Did they give you a new upload link?

Eno-Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/354262#Comment_354262

Hi @Alexandru_BD,after trying several times to send the result of the support tool through the links provided to me by assistance and https://upload.bitdefender.net and always getting the same error : “network error”,during another remote session they managed to get the file using the Team Viewer option that allows it.I am waiting for a response from them.

Also they analyzed BDSys results finding nothing strange, from what they explained to me so far it would seem to be more of a tech problem than malware related, however the situation is not clear..for example about the unusual behavior of the VPN that I reported,they could see themselves that it was as I said .. they don't understand the cause,they said they think there might be some app that triggers its startup but they didn't find it ( not even by checking the Task Manager )...

Other oddities there were for example while trying to run the Support tool because the result was corrupted ,to solve it was not enough even to delete the BDLogging folder in Program Data ..they had to use an internal tool and only then did the support tool generate an acceptable file..or at least I hope so,since I am still waiting for their response..what do you think?

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

I was also suspecting some app that triggers the VPN at startup, but it seems that this is not the case here..
If all auto-connect settings are disabled, then obviously it shouldn't connect by itself, unless there's something else outside the actual VPN app that influences its behaviour, so I think this requires a 'trial and error' approach to try to find the root cause. It's also intriguing that reinstalling didn't fix this, because a fresh install usually helps.
I say let's wait for them to investigate further and get back to you with their findings.

Regards