MalwareBytes Web Blocking / RAM Usage Issue

[Tony D]

Posted: January 27, 2018 by Malwarebytes Labs

Last updated: January 28, 2018

 

Earlier this morning, we published a protection update that caused connection issues for many of our customers. As a side effect of the web protection blocks, the product also spiked memory usage and possibly caused a crash.

We have triaged this issue and pushed a protection update that resolves it.

 

For our consumer solutions

Malwarebytes 3

Update package version 1.0.3803 (Malwarebytes 3) or v2018.01.27.12 (Malwarebytes 2.x) or higher

1. Open Malwarebytes

2. Turn OFF web protection by Clicking on Settings, Protection tab, and then click to turn Web Protection OFF (click “Yes” for the User Access Control prompt)

3. Click on Dashboard and then under Scan Status (right side), click “Current” which is next to “Updates” to have Malwarebytes download the latest database

4. Restart PC

(Note it may take up to 2 restarts after the update to stabilize the system)

To confirm that you are on the latest database please follow the steps below:

1. Open Malwarebytes

2. Click on Settings

3. Click on the About tab

4. Next to “Update package version” if you see version 1.0.3803 or higher you are on the latest database which addresses the issue.

If the above doesn’t resolve the issue, please reach out to support at support@malwarebytes.com.

 

For our business solutions

Please read the following post for guidance for both on-prem Malwarebytes Management Console (MBMC) and for cloud-based Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection (Cloud Console): https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/220408-how-to-recover-from-faulty-web-protection-update/

If the above doesn’t resolve the issue, please reach out to support at corporate-support@malwarebytes.com

The root cause of the issue was a malformed protection update that the client couldn’t process correctly. We have pushed upwards of 20,000 of these protection updates routinely. We test every single one before it goes out. We pride ourselves on the safety and accuracy of our detection engines and will work to ensure that this does not happen again.

Getting your computer or business back up and running is our utmost priority, as is rebuilding your trust.

 

Source: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2018/01/important-web-blocking-ram-usage/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTm1WaU5tUXlNRFF3TnpnMyIsInQiOiJ0cFBDSFpkRlFsOTJhM0NHMUJrTjZGbmpzdWlHTklSM055VWJlMys5M01uQVBheUxrb0g5NlhpOWdhWCs2TmNoaFR3S29BYUF5MFloQ2NYWENrTzdrYkVQSlwvXC9vbTRiek1wOE1ETnBtWXExc2IrSE9yTHhxeGhUbnBJRVVBcGJ5In0%3D

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I've been holding off with updating Malwarebytes.

Probably was a good thing that I did.

[Tony D]

Yup - btw: I ran into this issue on Saturday (before MB posted about it). A shop called me saying both their computers were down. I found on the one running Windows 7, MBAM was using 2 GB of RAM. (Also, I couldn't start the web protection.) I ended that and it started running properly. When I rebooted, the machine seemed to run OK. MBAM was then using 230 MB of RAM.

 

The other machine was a Windows 10 and it was having some other issue.

[starbuck]

You just saved me from posting that Tony :)

[plodr]

Malwarebytes updated two laptop computers and we had issues. A few hours after I read a fix was out, I checked for updates and got the new version of the update package . All was fine. Our desktop computers waited a day or two to update and they are both fine so you don't have to be afraid of updating the update package.