Numerous users reported that they had experienced inaccessibility to websites and services on Google and YouTube. Malwarebytes admitted and addressed the inconvenience after unintentionally flagging both platforms as malicious.
The incident resulted in the massive distribution of malware notifications, indicating that all websites from google subdomains contained malware. An affected user stated that Malwarebytes might have screwed one of its updates, which resulted in the access preventions of any Google sites.
The user also revealed that when it deactivated its real-time web protection on its device, the blocked website became accessible. Moreover, devices which do not include Malwarebytes in their system were not affected by the issue.
Malwarebytes immediately clarified that the situation was caused by a temporary instance that impacted a web filtering component module in its security products. They have also added that they know the filtering component issue and the websites affected by the feature.
Malwarebytes may have published an unfinished fix for the current issue.
Malwarebytes admin has rolled out a workaround fix for affected users. The spot required users to disable the flawed module by accessing Malwarebytes and deactivating the Web Protection option in the Real-Time Protection card.
An hour after the launch of the quick fix, the vendor revealed that it had already resolved the problem and that all customers’ software would automatically update to remove the buggy module.
Malwarebytes have stated on Twitter that the issue has already been repaired, and users should wait for the automatic updates. The anti-malware vendor also encourages its users that if there are still problems, they can report them to their help guides.
Once a user reports a problem, Malwarebyte’s product team will solve it and release their web protection database. The vendor then assured us that all updates would be at its latest versions, which solves the ongoing issue.
However, some user reports showed that the issue could still affect the enterprise customers since several endpoints still classify Google’s domains as blocked. Experts said that these issues are likely because of the unfinished distribution of Malwarebyte’s whole customer base.
