Julia 1.12.7 release | virus detection claimed by security software

General Usage
1

Hello,

Downloaded the Windows 64 Julia 1.12.7 installer julia-1.12.7-win64.exe from the link provided at the Julia manual download page:

https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/winnt/x64/1.12/julia-1.12.7-win64.exe

Installation was blocked with an error message regarding lack of permission and the installer disappeared.

Found that the anti-virus security application [Kaspersky] claims to have detected an embedded Trojan virus:

Event: Object deleted
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
User type: System user
Component: Virus Scan
Result: Deleted
Result description: Deleted
Type: Trojan
Name: VHO:Trojan.Win32.Convagent.gen

The Julia 1.12.7 installer julia-1.12.7-win64.exe was subsequently deleted by the anti-virus application.

As a user since Julia 1.0, this is the first time such an incident has occurred.

Reverted back to the Julia 1.12.6 installation.

2

I checked my Windows installation of Julia 1.12.7. I installed it via the Microsoft Store/Juliaup, rather than the standalone julia-1.12.7-win64.exe installer mentioned here.

The Julia runtime at ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.w64.mingw32/bin/julia.exe has a valid Authenticode signature from JuliaHub, Inc. A targeted Microsoft Defender scan of that runtime directory returned no detection.

So I have the same Julia release version, but not the same standalone installer binary that Kaspersky flagged. This looks consistent with a possible false positive on that installer, though the Julia project or Kaspersky would need to confirm that definitively.

3

A quick search for this shows a lot of false positives, so perhaps this is a bad heuristic. I would engage Kaspersky’s support or perhaps consider another AV vendor.

4

Report it to Kaspersky.

5

Thanks to all who replied. Appreciated.

The issue appears to be a false positive flagged by the anti-virus application. Have reported the issue to the vendor.