Virus or hacker attack on DCS updater?

[vanir]

Right after a big update the other day I got notification of a new update today, I thought it must be some sort of hotfix for the big recent one so clicked okay and it deleted all my DCS.exe files both the bin exe and the mt-bin exe so I can't even start the game. A log complained about some virus or malware in a file.

How do I resolve this?

Here is the log:

00000.062 --- Log file: C:\Users\Jason\AppData\Local\Temp\DCS\autoupdate_templog.txt
00000.000 === Log opened UTC 2024-11-03 00:28:09
00000.014 INFO : DCS_Updater/2.17.2.8 (Windows NT 10.0.22631; Win64; en-AU)
00000.014 INFO : src-id: 1bc8e7517304bc62fa4e911299a74b67759f8a4a, lib-id: b88ea51ae2210987a3865f77cc1802548216d7a8
00000.014 INFO : cmdline: "H:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\bin\DCS_updater.exe" 
00000.059 STATUS: Initializing...
00000.060 INFO : basedir: H:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\
00000.060 INFO : DCS/2.9.9.2280 (x86_64; EN;  WORLD,CAUCASUS_terrain,MARIANAISLANDS_terrain,A-10A,SU-25A,F-15C,MIG-29,SU-27,SU-33,L-39,SUPERCARRIER,WWII-ARMOUR,CA,NEVADA_terrain,F-5E,RAZBAM_MIG19P,A-10C,FA-18C,KA-50_3,KA-50,SPITFIRE-MKIX,P47D30,YAK-52,BF-109K4,FW-190D9,P-51D,FW-190A8,MIG-21BIS,F-16C,AJS37,RAZBAM_M-2000C,HEATBLUR_F-14,A-10C_2,NORMANDY_terrain,SYRIA_terrain,SINAIMAP_terrain,THECHANNEL_terrain,PERSIANGULF_terrain,KOLA_terrain)
00000.060 INFO : branch: 
00000.063 STATUS: Checking for updates...
00001.401 INFO : Got reply from www.digitalcombatsimulator.com
00002.420 INFO : Got reply from www.digitalcombatsimulator.com
00002.427 STATUS: Asking to update to 2.9.9.2406. Changelog: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/changelog/stable/2.9.9.2406/
00016.759 STATUS: Got NO
00016.759 INFO : DCS/2.9.9.2280 (x86_64; EN;  WORLD,CAUCASUS_terrain,MARIANAISLANDS_terrain,A-10A,SU-25A,F-15C,MIG-29,SU-27,SU-33,L-39,SUPERCARRIER,WWII-ARMOUR,CA,NEVADA_terrain,F-5E,RAZBAM_MIG19P,A-10C,FA-18C,KA-50_3,KA-50,SPITFIRE-MKIX,P47D30,YAK-52,BF-109K4,FW-190D9,P-51D,FW-190A8,MIG-21BIS,F-16C,AJS37,RAZBAM_M-2000C,HEATBLUR_F-14,A-10C_2,NORMANDY_terrain,SYRIA_terrain,SINAIMAP_terrain,THECHANNEL_terrain,PERSIANGULF_terrain,KOLA_terrain)
00016.759 INFO : branch: 
00016.764 STATUS: Can't run H:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\bin/DCS.exe: (2) The system cannot find the file specified.
00021.275 === Log closed.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2024 by vanir

[The_Nephilim]

could you just post the file or use code tags.. my my

[Rudel_chw]

16 minutes ago, vanir said:

How do I resolve this?

many people don't like my way, but use this PC just for DCS and nothing else, no work, no personal data, no on-line shopping, no porn …. So I just tell my antivirus not to touch my DCS folders, as I trust ED’s software to have no viruses.

[vanir]

Issue resolved. McAfee Antivirus was having a psychotic break. I was just waiting for the subscription to run out anyway, it's pretty pointless with current Windows antivirus.

Uninstalled it, ran a Windows antivirus scan turning up nothing and DCS works fine again.

[Spirale]

6 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

many people don't like my way, but use this PC just for DCS and nothing else, no work, no personal data, no on-line shopping, no porn …. So I just tell my antivirus not to touch my DCS folders, as I trust ED’s software to have no viruses.

+100

[Hiob]

And another one…..

We need a counter for false positive AV panic threads.  (not hitting on OP, just a general observation!)

 

Using McAfee is a mistake in the first place. It does nothing but promising a (false) feel of security to unsuspecting users and in reality just startles them with false positives more often than not.

To be clear, most AVs are guilty of that. Since the quota of false positives outweighs the actual catches of malicious stuff, they are basically useless. McAfee is just an extra <profanity>ty one.

The real protection against malware is behaviour and awareness. That‘s like 95% of the protection. AVs are complementary at best. And still there is no perfect protection. If you positively need certain data to be safe, make backups and don’t use the same machine for playtime.

 

Some actual advice: Try to stay cool, a false alarm is much more likely than an actual malicious file (assuming you stay clear of dubious file sharing etc). Go to virustotal.com and have the file in question checked. You will get much better and more reliable results there than from any single AV.

Edited November 3, 2024 by Hiob

[silverdevil]

10 hours ago, vanir said:

McAfee Antivirus was having a psychotic break

lol... check