Possible Hacking Issue With BitDefender

Hello,

I have noticed over the past 6 months that BitDefender keeps disabling automatic updates.

I'm usually alerted to this fact, after Windows Defender tells me that something is wrong with BitDefender.

When I look at BitDefender's update settings, I always see that the Automatic Update and Silent Update settings are reverted to disabled.

I have even used a password to prevent settings from being altered, but I'm still seeing the setting changes being automatically made.

I am on Windows 11 Pro, so I'm doubtful that this is an OS issue.

The only thing I can think of is that BitDefender is reverting these settings upon a major update (which is a major bug and something I'm extremely doubtful of), or my system has been infected with some sort of malware that is disabling BitDefender.

I primarily view only video hosting sites (like YouTube), so it's not like I'm scouring the dark depths of the world wide web. Even so, I run BitDefender's full system scan about once or twice a month, and it never comes up with any infections.

Any idea on who I should contact at BitDefender, as this is either some sort of hacking of my system or a major BitDefender issue (both of which are likely important bugs).

Thank you,
Nelson

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Alexandru_BD

Hello Nelson and thanks for joining us here.

What you describe does not automatically point to a hacking or malware issue. There have been other reports of Bitdefender’s update settings appearing to switch back off, and common causes include Profiles changing update behavior, configuration corruption, Windows policy/security restrictions, or in some cases interference from third-party tuning or cleanup tools.
The first thing to check would be if the Profiles in Bitdefender are set to enable automatically.
Try going to Utilities → Profiles and temporarily disable Automatic, then go back to Settings → Update and re-enable automatic update and silent update. I know this resolved the issue in at least one similar case I found here:

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/96755/my-bitdefender-autoupdate-keeps-switching-itself-off

For more context on the Bitdefender Profiles and their purpose, have a look at this article:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2062/

If the profiles are not being enabled automatically based on your current activity or running applications, then we move to the next possible cause. Utilities such as system cleaners, optimizer apps, OEM support assistants, or even some VPN setups can interfere with these services or scheduled tasks related to updates. And if I'm not mistaken, Controlled Folder Access in Windows Security can also sometimes block Bitdefender from rewriting its settings properly. So this must be checked as well. Here's another related thread where I replied about this:

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/105667/update-automatically-setting-keeps-resetting-to-off

Another argument supporting the idea that this is not something malicious is the fact that the settings still revert even with the password on. So, this is happening internally through configuration behavior rather than someone manually changing them. If Profiles are off and no other software seems to be interfering, the next step would be to reinstall Bitdefender, because damaged configuration files can also cause update settings to reset. Reinstalling is fairly easy to do.

As for who to contact if the issue persists, you can get in touch with Bitdefender Support using the link below, where chat is usually the fastest route:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

If you do need to contact Support, make sure to provide them with the information below, as this is relevant and would help speed things up.

your exact Bitdefender product and build
whether Automatic Profiles is/was enabled
whether Windows Controlled Folder Access is ON
whether you use any cleanup/optimizer/privacy utilities
whether a reinstall changes the behavior or not

Let me know how it goes and if anything here helped.

Regards

dvsls

Did you have Utilities → Profiles enabled? In Game mode the update is postponed so there might be some issue with your installation in this scenario.

NelsonA

Hello Alexandru,

Thank you for the prompt and detailed response.

I just tried your suggestion regarding the disabling of automatic profiles and then the disabling/enabling of update settings.

I will respond to this thread if I notice this doesn't work.

That being said, this would seem like a massive bug.

Regardless of the reason, there should be no way that updates are disabled (if the user didn't explicitly disable those settings - especially when the user has enabled a password lockout on setting changes).

I once worked at Symantec in QA (creators of Norton Antivirus and Symantec Endpoint Protection) a long time ago.

If there was ever a situation where our anti-virus suite disabled automatic updates for any reason, it would've been an all-hands-on-deck situation to get it fixed.

The fact that you seem to imply that this is a somewhat known issue, makes me think BitDefender is not taking this issue seriously enough.

If it happens again on my system and you need me to write up a bug, I can, but quite frankly, I shouldn't need to.

At Symantec, it was a big deal to always have virus definitions up-to-date (at least every 1 hour or so, if I remember correctly). The fact that my update of BitDefender was disabled for 1 week or more without my knowledge is insane.

What's even more insane, is that Windows Defender had to tell me that BitDefender hadn't been updated in a long time (that BitDefender itself didn't mention anything is ridiculous).

I know you may only be a forum admin, but if you know someone who works for BitDefender on the Dev side, I strongly recommend you get this issue written up and fixed ASAP.

Your ability to handle zero-day exploits means nothing if BitDefender updates are disabled.

Furthermore, I only noticed because I am somewhat computer savvy. Someone who is not computer savvy would have no idea, and would only find out after their system was compromised (as complaints from Windows Defender wouldn't mean much to them, as BitDefender shows an all-green state).

This is in no way an attack on you, as I am extremely grateful for your help and detailed response.

I have been a long time user of BitDefender (for nearly 10 years). If this continues to be a problem, I will have to move back to ESET or Nod32, as your impeccable anti-virus detection means nothing if I have to constantly baby your anti-virus suite to make sure that updates aren't being disabled (and once again, I worked at Symantec for 1.5 years in QA, this was never considered to be normal/known behavior and would be fixed immediately).

Regards,
Nelson

Alexandru_BD

Hi Nelson,

I appreciate the reply. And I take this opportunity to thank you for entrusting the security of your devices to Bitdefender for almost a decade. Here's to many more years alongside.

Quoting your earlier statement - That being said, this would seem like a massive bug. - as it can be noticed from the previous threads on this topic which I have shared in my comment above, one of the users who encountered this behavior at some point had the Profiles enabled automatically, so it was not a bug in his case, but an expected app behavior according to their configuration. The updates resumed once he turned off the profiles.
The Profiles have been designed to help improve work efficiency, by turning off some of the background services and maintenance tasks, and automatic updates fall into this category. This way, whenever let's say the work profile, or game profile are active, this optimizes system settings, enhances visual effects and eliminates any interruptions that may steal focus.

Furthermore, there are some programs known to revert or disable auto-update services, for example CCleaner, Glary Utilities, Advanced SystemCare, Ashampoo WinOptimizer, WiseCare 365, Driver Booster, Dell/HP/OEM Support Assist tools that disable scheduled tasks, some VPNs that use Kill Switch modes, Windows Storage Sense + Automatic maintenance tasks, and the list goes on.
These tools can silently block an update service. So if you have any of these, or other similar programs, make sure they are not resetting scheduled tasks.

And yes, as the admin of this forum i've also quoted one of my colleagues from the QA team for visibility.

I think we can argue that there's sometimes a tendency to label a behaviour experienced by multiple users as a bug, when in fact, specific system settings or product configuration can play an important role. I've seen this countless times over the years..
If this was indeed a major bug, I assure you that it would have been noticed by many (so not just a few forum posts here and there) and surely it would have been addressed by now.
I think we can't possibly assume that millions of customers would be unaware of their antivirus updates failing.. sooner or later, you eventually notice if something is off with a software, and you don't really have to be tech savvy to come to a conclusion. In most cases, it really turns out to be something on the device that's interferring with the updates, or some setting that has been enabled.
This is NOT to point the finger elsewere, or to say that such things can't happen in our court, as we've had our fair share of bugs in time, but I don't think this is the case here, considering the aspects mentioned and the fact that the devs are unaware of such a bug at this time and it's not something that has been reported on a large scale.

Going back to the setup, if the Profiles are not enabled, and no other obvious cause can be identified, then the Support teams should be able to find out more after analyzing logs from the installed product.

Hence my recommendation to contact and provide them with the necessary information.😉

Regards and thank you once again for joining us here.

NelsonA

Hello Alexandru,

It's looking like profiles may be the issue, as the following day after setting BitDefender to check for an update every 1 hour, it reverted back to 8 hours.

I have disabled automatic profiles in BitDefender.

I also do not have nor use the applications that you listed:

CCleaner, Glary Utilities, Advanced SystemCare, Ashampoo WinOptimizer, WiseCare 365, Driver Booster, Dell/HP/OEM Support Assist tools, etc.

BitDefender has defaulted (after disabling automatic profiles) to the work profile.

Can I assume with the work profile enabled, that my update settings will remain unchanged?

If not, can I assume I must disable all profiles?

Keep in mind, disabling profiles is not a problem (if that is what I must do to ensure that updates are not disabled in BitDefender).

You also mentioned that this behavior could be considered as working "by design".

I suppose the question I would pose to your Dev/QA staff is, why would disabling all updates for more than 1 week be considered a good idea? Once again, we're not talking about performing updates every other day, we're talking about updates not having been performed for more than a week (likely around 1.5 weeks). Had I not paid attention to Windows Defender alerting me to BitDefender's lack of updates for more than 1 week, I'm certain BitDefender would have remained in a stale state indefinitely. How can your Dev/QA team justify updates being disabled indefinitely as being something that is "by design"?

I understand that anti-virus suites can be a hit on system resources, but the resource hits tend to be due to file scanning, heuristic analysis, driver's loading up on boot up, etc.

Updates rarely tend to be a problem, especially in this day and age when cable/DSL/fiber is standard for many households.

I could understand back 25 - 30 years ago, when a lot of people were on 56K dial-up modems that performing updates could be a major bottleneck. I just don't see how a 30 megabyte update would be a major issue (if downloading in the background).

Given how important virus definitions are to a working anti-virus suite, completely disabling updates completely for more than 1 week is in my opinion a serious bug. All I do on my system is watch YouTube videos. There is no way that a 30 megabyte update would be problem for a system with a cable modem at 300 - 400 Mbps.

I could understand if I was playing video games via the web, with ping rates possibly being an issue. But there are no video games installed on my system (which your anti-virus suite would have to know, as you've scanned all the files on my system and are likely using reputation scans, among other things, to know what is what).

At the very least, you may want to think about adding a toggle switch on each page of BitDefender which allows the user to enforce the automatic disabling of certain settings. In other words, if I set the toggle switch to enabled on the Update page of BitDefender, that would mean that BitDefender would not be able, under any circumstances (whether using profiles or not), modify those settings.

I will update this thread if I continue to have problems with the Work profile (at that point, I will disable all profiles). If I still see problems with all profiles disabled, and I don't have the applications you listed running in the background, to me, that would point to either a major bug or some sort of virus on my system that is disabling updates (which some virus' are known to do).

Regards,
Nelson