I recently received around 100 notifications from Bitdefender saying it quarantined files as "potentially unwanted items." This happened right after it blocked a website I was trying to download a game from, which I generally trust since I've downloaded from it before without issues. I'm wondering if these files could have been altered recently to be harmful, or if this is just a case of Bitdefender going a bit overboard with false positives. Some of the files it flagged include common programs like mspaint and even windowsupdate.exe, which I've used safely for years. How should I approach this situation?
3 Answers
Bitdefender isn't usually known for false positives, but that doesn’t mean glitches don’t happen. It's always a good idea to double-check flagged files, especially if they're commonly used software. If you’re still unsure, reaching out to Bitdefender support could give you some clarity.
It's totally possible you're dealing with false positives. Heuristic analysis can sometimes flag safe files as threats if they match certain patterns. If you didn’t actually run any of the flagged files, it’s more likely that Bitdefender just misinterpreted them, especially after you tried to download that file. I’d lean towards considering it a glitch rather than having those files actually infected.
Exactly, and on top of that, the fact that Bitdefender says to delete anything you don’t recognize feels like they might be hinting these flagged files are actually fine if you know them. Trust your instincts!
A good approach is to take a few of those flagged files and upload them to VirusTotal. It checks them against a bunch of other antivirus programs, and it can give you a clearer idea of whether those files are safe or not. If multiple AVs say they're malicious, then you might have a problem, but if they come back clean, you can feel more confident about restoring them.
That makes sense. I didn't run anything, just tried to download a file, and BOOM, the notifications hit. Sounds like it's more of a Bitdefender issue than a real infection.