Virus alert for BullCowsGame.exe

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#1

I am getting a virus alert from Norton saying

"Auto-Protect is processing security risk (Heur.AdvML.B.) which it regards as high risk

This pops up when I hit Ctrl F5 to compile and run BullCowGame. The program compiles, the DOS window appears with our program output and the Norton warning appears.

Norton says the file with the security risk is BullCowGame.exe

Before I run BullCowGame, Norton says my computer is clean or safe

As I understand it, when you hit Ctrl F5 , your code is compiled and then it CREATES and executes BullCowGame.exe

Then I get the virus warning.

If I fix the problem, Norton says the computer is safe, but I will get the same warning every time I compile this program.

How can the computer be “clean” before running my program and “dirty” afterwards?

Am I infected with this virus?

Or is Norton interpreting the creation of BullCowGame.exe and/or the opening of the DOS window as suspicious virus-like activity and returning a false positive?

I haven’t visited any suspicious sites or downloaded anything I would consider suspicious. Norton doesn’t think I have either, because I didn’t receive any warnings and it said the files I downloaded were safe.

Has anyone else been experiencing this or a very similar problem?

#2

Can you post a git of your code? I’ll try it on my machine and see what my AV says.

Antivirus programs scan specifically for .exe files, I believe, and so because it’s not sure what this new program is, it is just playing it safe. You should be able to mark the file as safe, or an exeption.

#3

I took a look at the definition of the virus Heur.AdvML.B over on the synaptic website.

They state that this is a Heuristic detection using machine learning.
I.e. Its not so much that it detects a specific virus but instead look at the behaviour of the program and see it as matching the definition of the generic Heur.AdvML.B definition.

I don’t think it would be because it opens a DOS window. After all, most virusses try to avoid being detected and as such would not open one. I’m not sure why its being matched but as norton says your safe I don’t think the BullCowGame.exe will actually contain a virus. Its most likely just a false positive.

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