Microsoft Defender's security technology has been providing false positive security alerts to users of programmes like Google Chrome, Discord, and Twitch.
Users are receiving a warning called "Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY," which, according to Microsoft, is meant to flag potentially harmful files that are often downloaded over channels like email.
Perhaps consolingly, a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation by the name of "Hive" was identified as the culprit of an attack on the European store of consumer electronics Media Markt in September 2021.
Now what?
Version 1.373.1537.0 of the Microsoft Defender update is said to have fixed the bug.
After the release of a Security Intelligence Update with the designation KB2267602, users started posting complaints about the bug on Microsoft's support forums.
The timing of the update appeared to be extremely unlucky as Microsoft US was taking advantage of a long weekend for Labor Day.
The affected apps have one thing in common: they employ the open-source Electron JavaScript framework, which is used by programmes like WhatsApp, Yammer, and Visual Studio Code, or Google's open-source Chromium browser engine.
This wouldn't be the first time that Chrome was reported as a false positive by Microsoft's firewall.
Microsoft Security Essentials and Microsoft Forefront classified a Chrome executable as the ZeuS trojan back in the dim days of 2011, with the intention of collecting users' bank login credentials.
Users were reportedly unable to use Chrome for hours due to the problem.
More recently, it was revealed by a number of reports from Windows system administrators that Microsoft Defender for Endpoint had classified browser updates obtained from the Google Update service as suspicious.
Having problems with Windows Defender? View our guide to the top antivirus programs.
