Anti-virus software report IAR file as a virus

Introduction

IAR Systems always do the utmost to provide development tools that is completely free from any malicious software. We continuously work to protect our products from any Viruses, Spywares, Worms, Trojans and etc. and our software has never been found to contain any code designed to harm computers and it’s highly unlikely that it will ever do due to our extensive protective measures to prohibit this from happening. Despite our ongoing efforts parts of our products can still sometimes falsely be reported by an antivirus tool, but this is by IAR Systems always considered as a false positive.

Background - false positive

False positives can be raised for any legitimate software due to the complex nature of today’s antivirus software. A false positive, also known as a false detection or false alarm, occurs when an antivirus program detects a string in an uninfected file that matches a string from an actual virus. This can happen due to the fact that only small fragments i.e. patterns of virus files are searched for during virus scans. A false positive can also be triggered for applications performing actions which falsely are accused to be similar to virus activities. Also new technologies that use heuristic detection methods to predict how unreported malicious software could infect systems can falsely report legitimate software since those methods are based on educated guesses and theories.

Contact your antivirus software supplier - BUT also inform us at IAR Systems

Even though false positives only can be handled by your antivirus provider and is not considered to be a problem or fault within our product we are most grateful to be informed so we can take proper actions trying to prevent false positives from occurring but we are not compelled to mediate between you and your antivirus provider. Use the following links to Report False Positive to Symantec or Detect a File that is Believed to be Safe.

Try to update your antivirus software.

If you believe you are affected by a false positive it’s usually worth the time to verify that latest versions of antivirus tools and definition files are being used. As a temporary work around your antivirus software provider can usually be contacted to get proper exclusion instructions since software triggering false positives should be safe to temporarily exclude from being scanned or processed in another way.

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