Question

WriteProcessMemory and fale positive detection by BitDefender

Asked by: Mortaza_doulaty

I'm working on a project which is written in C++, it uses WriteProcessMemory to allocate and access memory of a different process. The final compiled exe file is detected as virus by my BitDefender Total Security 2009, this is obviously a false positive detection. I checked my code and when I comment the line which calls WriteProcessMemory, my antivirus does not detect it as a virus.

Is there a problem with using WriteProcessMemory?
How can I solve my problem?
As this project is going to be distributed, so I cannot ask end users to add exception for this file.

I tested my app with some other anti virus as well and did not find any problem regarding the use of WriteProcessMemory.

Just to mention BitDefender says my file behaves like Win32.ExplorerHijack (even before executing the file) and deletes it.

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Asked On
2009-06-18 at 03:33:29ID24501939
Tags

WriteProcessMemory

,

BitDefender

,

false positive detection

Topics

Anti-Virus Applications

,

Microsoft Visual C++

,

Windows Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 03:43:25ID: 24656105

WriteProcessMemory is considered an exploit by some scanners, because it can potentially write in other processes memories (actually: that's precisely what it does). It is very common that non-standard behaving applications are considered harmful if they act the same as viruses.

If your application needs to do this for whatever reason, it is fair that you warn your users, you have to, anyway, because they need administrator rights to run your application, I believe (the PROCESS_VM_WRITE and PROCESS_VM_OPERATION access rights), otherwise WriteProcessMemory will fail.

Other then that, you can send your application to BitDefender for analysis. I've had so many tools on my system that are considered viruses, as a developer I often need to poke around, and many such tools, even my own, are often considered harmful by eager anti virus scanners.

-- Abel --

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 03:56:33ID: 24656161

Btw: iirc, Comodo would consider your application a false positive too. Many rootkits use the VirtualAllocEx / WriteProcessMemory to inject themselves in other processes, see page 8 in this PDF http://islab.oregonstate.edu/koc/ece478/05Report/Carter-Turk.pdf. Once a rootkit is running, it can often not be killed anymore. to prevent that, virus scanners prevent suspicious code doing exactly that: injecting data in another process. Some virus scanners may be smarter then others, but that can also mean that the "smarter" virus scanners will let some things slip through.

I'm not gonna defend BitDefender, I don't even use it, but I can understand where it's coming from when it blocks your app. Consider putting yourself on a safelist during installation of your program, or warn for this behavior when you detect presence of BitDefender.

 

by: Mortaza_doulatyPosted on 2009-06-18 at 07:25:11ID: 24657696

Thanks for your comment. As I said before, when I comment that line of code, it is not being detected as a virus, but what is interesting, I tested that API in a blank solution and the compiled exe file is not being detected as a virus.
What do you think about this?
And how it is possible to add my exe file to the safe list programatically?

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 07:48:38ID: 24657987

Well, a virus scanner would be a bad virus scanner if it allowed running programs to add themselves to the safe list. If it can be done, it should be reported as a bug to the creators of BitDefender. I mentioned it basically as a meandering thought, but you should tell that as an instruction to the users of the setup. You can of course check for existence of BitDefender and you may find a way to positively find out whether your code would run.

I don't what the difference is between your test app and your deployable app, but there's clearly something you are doing that has the same signature as that of a virus.

Browsing the Net a bit shows the same: using WriteProcessMemory can trigger any virus scanner as it is one of the core methods of writing rootkits (on which I am not allowed to advise according to EE rules and agreements).

-- Abel --

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 07:51:12ID: 24658016

So, my plan of attack would be: call BitDefender and/or send the file using the automatic submit function (if they have any). Test any other virus scanner you can find and do the same if you are considered a false positive. Users of virus scanners are usually quite up to date. In a few weeks, your application is considered harmless and you don't have to jump through hoops anymore to get it working on a variety of disparate systems.

BitDefender is not really a large virus scanner considering its usage share. I'd be more worried if the (rather lousy) scanners of Symantec or McAfee would consider you a false positive.

 

by: Mortaza_doulatyPosted on 2009-06-18 at 07:55:42ID: 24658067

I'm still curious about the difference between my test app and the deployable app.
Anyway, thank you for your comments.

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 08:11:59ID: 24658231

tx for the grading ;-)
I'm curious too, but I know from experience that it is quite tricky to know when a virus scanner considers something evil. I've done my share of VirtualAllocEx and friends and sometimes mid-testing, I get blocked by my scanner... (which is why it is sometimes off, actually).

 

by: Mortaza_doulatyPosted on 2009-06-18 at 09:46:04ID: 24659229

I've tested each line of my code, the final result is as I said before, just the line with a call to WriteProcessMemory. Every things seems to be all right when there is no WriteProcessMemory  call in the app, but when I write that command, it is being recognized as a virus. I tried calling that function from other functions and making the code some how complicated, but no lock.

Submitting to BitDefender is not a good solution for me, cause there are several release of the app within short period of time.

I think finally the project may become a BitDefender backdoor to disable it in a very harsh way :D

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 10:06:45ID: 24659463

> cause there are several release of the app within short period of time.

that shouldn't be a problem. Write them an email and tell them to recognize your signature. Tell them, too, that there algorithm for blocking any application with WriteProcessMemory is too strict.

(thought you had two applications with writeprocessmemory, but if this is the difference, it is all quite clear and also understandable that your app is blocked)

LOL (backdoor) ;-)

 

by: Mortaza_doulatyPosted on 2009-06-18 at 10:10:24ID: 24659498

>>(thought you had two applications with writeprocessmemory, but if this is the difference, it is all quite clear and also understandable that your app is blocked)

I cannot figure it out, what should be the difference when calling WriteProcessMemory from two different apps, one is blocked and the other not...

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 10:25:54ID: 24659692

You said "Every things seems to be all right when there is no WriteProcessMemory  call in the app, but when I write that command, it is being recognized as a virus. "

meaning: when the WriteProcessMemory is there, you have a problem, regardless the app, right? That would second my own experiences.

If you really want to solve this long-term, create a dll that gets itself injected in any process and use normal IPC to your app. That way you do not need to use WriteProcessMemory at all, but it is quite a bit more work. If I remember correctly, you should register your dll int he AppInitDll section. of the registry, something like that...

 

by: Mortaza_doulatyPosted on 2009-06-18 at 10:55:54ID: 24660015

>> when the WriteProcessMemory is there, you have a problem, regardless the app, right?
No, only in my first app, in the second one there is a call to  WriteProcessMemory, but it is not being recognized as a virus...  

 

by: abelPosted on 2009-06-18 at 11:38:48ID: 24660455

Don't count on it too much. If today you find out why a certain call in a certain spot is recognized, tomorrow you'll find out it is not recognized anymore as a virus, but the day after it is once more. Heuristic scanning is not really your friend here. Anyway, your best bet is not to rely on any virus scanner. It is quite common nowadays that some programs (even internals to Windows) are sometimes considered a virus, so people are quite used to adding them to the safe list. If that's any consolation...

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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