My app is recognized as virus?

[doctorized]

Not pretty sure if my post belongs here, if not, please, transfer it where it belongs. I make a school library app that uses SQLite db to store data for books, students, teachers and lendings. With PB 5.72 I had no problem. With version 6.12, Windows 10 Security refers that my exe file is infected with Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml !!! I do not import any library or anything else. I read xls/xlsx files and write them via vbs script, don't know if it has to do something with that. I have scanned my pc with ESET Smart Security and it is clean. I have clients that are not familiar with MS Security and don't how to deal wth the message appeared. What is going on?

[Fred]

Submit your exe to MS so they can fix it: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/fi ... d3ac9c6af4

[doctorized]

Submit your exe to MS so they can fix it: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/fi ... d3ac9c6af4

Thank you for your fast replay. I just did it and wait.

[AZJIO]

Chrisr on this site gave a good link, which gives the report how antiviruses work and how they create problems.
https://blog.nirsoft.net/2009/05/17/ant ... evelopers/

[BarryG]

With PB 5.72 I had no problem. With version 6.12, Windows 10 Security refers that my exe file is infected with Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml

I still use PureBasic 6.10 because the later versions give me a couple more false-positives that I don't want to deal with. Not sure what changed, but with 6.10 my exe usually only gets one false-positive from McAfee, but sometimes "Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml" from Microsoft too. So I get two false-positives with 6.10, and about four or five false-positives with 6.20.

What I do now is submit my exe for white-listing with McAfee, and Microsoft as well just for the SmartScreen clearance, before releasing my app about a week later. The white-listing from both only takes two days on average, but I leave it for a week so the clean status has filtered through to my users' PCs by then.

BTW, the "ml" at the end of "Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml" means "machine learning", so basically not a virus but the anti-virus company just thinks it is. You may need to explain that to your users to allay any fears.

[ChrisR]

Chrisr on this site gave a good link, which gives the report how antiviruses work and how they create problems.
https://blog.nirsoft.net/2009/05/17/ant ... evelopers/

Still relevant and will still be in 10 years
We, small developers, really need to fight them by writing everywhere that they are not up to the task to force them to improve.

But, the "Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml" is a real pain on Windows Defender, especially on x86 compilations.
I don't know what we can do to improve the current situation.

Here is a contact list url to forward false positives to Antivirus companies: https://github.com/yaronelh/False-Positive-Center

[miso]

Thank you ChrisR! That list is very handy.