Windows 10: Windows Hello Repeated False Acceptance/Positive

Hi,


Windows Hello reliably allowed my boyfriend access to my laptop when I was not in view of the IR camera. I tried "improving recognition", but to no avail. I have now removed windows hello and set it up again: it now appears to work fine.


Why did it allow him access about 20 times?


Thanks

Izzy

:)

 

Windows defender false positive - forced to allow threat


Windows defender has started to identify C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe as a threat [normally reported as a Trojan Powessere.G]. I use mshta.exe to run an hta custom MsgBox - I have been hoping to keep using my current CustomMsgBox tool [batch file calling a vbs-hta file] until later this year when I hope to have had enough time to replace it with a PowerShell alternative.

Windows defender's notification lets me "allow the threat" but that seems to me to be a bigger security hole than is necessary - it will now ignore a potentially real intrusion when all I want to run is a genuine Windows component. My immediate problem is fixed but I would prefer to fix the false positive using the exclusions list.

I cleared the 'Allowed threats history' so I could use the exclusions list instead. I added C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe to the file exclusions list and I checked that it had taken properly by checking the exclusions list both in the UI & in the Registry. But the exclusion made no difference, it continued to detect and block the exe.

I have repeated the attempt several times [by clearing the allowed threats list & exclusions list beforehand] and the results are the same every time
- allowing the threat works,
- using the exclusions list has no effect.

I studied the relevant tutorial but have not spotted an error in what I have been doing - Add or Remove Windows Defender Exclusions

Does anybody with experience of using the exclusions list to counter false positives have any suggestions for me?

Denis

 

False positive for desktop shortcut scanner.lnk

The 1.239.488.0 virus / spyware definition update that rolled out about 24 hours ago appears to be producing a false positive for any shortcut placed on the desktop called "Scanner.lnk". I can consistently replicate a false positive for Trojan:Win32/FakeSysdef
with the following steps.

• Create a shortcut to an exe file.
• Place the shortcut on the desktop.
• Name the shortcut "Scanner".
• Run "Quick Scan".

I don't get the same result by directly scanning the file, nor by uploading the file to www.virustotal.com, so it would appear this is as a result of a heuristic rather than a file content analysis. I also don't get the same result with a shortcut that links
to a website.

Can anyone else replicate? How can we go about getting the Windows Defender team to reconsider this heuristic? It's a bit heavy-handed.

 

defender false positive

Hi Bob,

To better assist you, kindly verify the following:

• Where did you submit the file about Windows Defender being false positive?
• Right after the recent Windows 10 update, your Zara Radio stopped working?
• Regarding the 404 error, what application were you using when you got that error?

Let us know.