May 28, 2023

Microsoft has fixed a bug in the Windows Defender that identified the Chromium browser engine and/or Electron JavaScript framework as Hive ransomware and recommended removal.

Numerous social media and forum posts detailed how Windows has produced a warning of “Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY” when users run everyday applications like Google’s Chrome browser or the Spotify music streamer.

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Hive is a nasty ransomware-as-a-service outfit, so it’s a good thing that Windows Defender antivirus can detect and warn against the presence of its pernicious products. But neither Spotify nor Chrome are malware or ransomware. Users were therefore a tad miffed at Windows making constant suggestions to the contrary.

It’s been diagnosed as a false positive produced by Windows Defender, possibly due to recent browser updates somehow confusing matters.

Microsoft’s changelog for antimalware products recorded a flurry of eight updates to Windows Defender dated September 4th, suggesting concerted action to resolve the issue. Version 1.373.1537.0 appears to have done the trick and the flagging as disappeared.

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This is not the first time Microsoft has identified Chrome as Malware: the archive records show a similar incident in 2011!

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