First, what are Avast and AVG?
Avast and AVG are two antivirus brands that run on the same detection engine. Both belong to Gen Digital, the company that also owns Norton. People install them on their computers to block malicious files and dangerous websites.
Both brands can mark a website as dangerous or phishing, and a file as a threat. When the verdict is wrong, the product blocks your page or removes your file until Avast corrects the detection.
Who can't reach you right now
Where it's used, and who shares it
AV-Comparatives lists these products as using the Avast engine. Avast, AVG and Norton all belong to Gen Digital. We could not verify that a fix at Avast reaches Norton by itself, so report to Norton separately if it still flags you.
AVGUses Avast engine
NortonUses Avast engineThese engines are independent from Avast. If they flag you too, each one needs its own request:
Kaspersky →
ESET →
Bitdefender →
Microsoft Defender →How to tell if you're flagged
VirusTotal. Scan the URL or file and find the rows named Avast and AVG. Avast and AVG offer no lookup tool of their own for a URL or a file.- A clean test machine. Install a free trial or the free edition in a virtual machine, update it and open your site or run your file.
- User reports. Ask affected users for a screenshot of the detection popup. It shows the detection name and the Alert ID, and the report form asks for both.
Asking Avast to fix it
Collect the details
Write down the detection name exactly as the popup shows it. The Alert ID is at the bottom of the detection popup. For a website, copy the full URL, including the protocol, domain, subdomain and all parameters. For a file, keep the file itself.
Check that it is a mistake
Scan your server and your scripts for injected code, and rebuild files from clean source. Avast asks for a vendor identifier in every executable and prefers a digital signature, so add both before you report a file. Fix anything you find first.
Report a website
Open the official form at avast.com/report-false-positive. AVG has the same form with the same rules at avg.com/en-ww/report-false-positive. Click the URL tab. Websites go through this form, not through the whitelist program. Enter your email address, the detection name, the Alert ID, the full URL and a description. You need no account. The form does not ask for a company email address, so a personal one is fine. A phishing flag on a website has no file to send. Say what the site is, who owns it and what each form on the page collects.
Website flagged as phishing
Tab: URL
Your email: name[at]example[.]com
Detection name: <name exactly as the popup shows it>
Alert ID: <ID from the bottom of the popup>
URL: hxxps://example[.]com/page
Description: hxxps://example[.]com is the website of our company,
Example Ltd. Avast blocks it as phishing. We own
the domain and run the site ourselves. The only
form is the customer login, and it sends data to
our own server. The site has no downloads. Please
review the verdict.
Report a file
Use the same form and click the File tab. The maximum size is 500 MB. A ZIP or RAR archive may hold only one file, and the archive must NOT have a password. Avast processes detected files only, and says "undetected files will not be processed". Enter your email address, the detection name, the Alert ID, the file and a description. If Avast blocks you from zipping the file, turn off Core Shields for a short time, as described in support article 160.
File flagged as malware
Tab: File
Your email: name[at]example[.]com
Detection name: <name exactly as the popup shows it>
Alert ID: <ID from the bottom of the popup>
File: example-app-setup.zip (one file, no password)
Description: This file is the installer of our product
Example App 2.1. Avast detects it as a threat.
We built it from our own source. The official
download page is hxxps://example[.]com/download.
Please review the verdict.
Wait for the review
After you submit, Avast shows this message: "we will review it within the next 48 business hours. We will update our detection database once the result of the technical analysis is ready." Avast offers no email address for false positives, so the form is the only channel.
Check the result
Scan your URL or file on VirusTotal and look at the Avast and AVG rows. Ask affected users to update their product and try again. If Norton still flags you, send a separate report to Norton.
Other ways to report
Avast / AVG explains its own rules for false positives on these pages:
VirusTotal's list of vendor contacts gives this address for false positive reports to Avast / AVG. Use it when the route above does not work for you. Put the full URL and the link to your VirusTotal report in the message. A personal email address is fine.
[email protected]