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Sophos hits 100% CPU Usage w/Beachball When Scanning JavaScript

Jibberish18

Hi Guys. I downloaded Sophos a couple of months back and was using it just fine until I noticed that my system started hanging severly. My CPU usage would jump up to full blast and things would hang until I closed a task that belonged to Sophos. I later found out that it was happening whenever I'd go to a site that needed access to Javascript such as speedtest.net or pingtest.net or http://il.speedtest.rcn.net/oldtest/. I reported the issue and was told to come here and discuss it so here I am. Sorry if I'm not more detailed. I actually have uninstalled Sophos since. I can go home, reinstall and recreate the problem to give you more details. In the meanwhile, please discuss. Thanks.

:1001887


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    Thanks for coming to the forums!

    Which OS version and web browser are you using?

    I think I know the answer to your problem though.

    You have On-Access scanning enabled with "Scan: Inside archives and compressed files" checked.

    The issue is that the sites you've listed contain Java applets and Adobe Flash, not simple Javascript.  Java applets are actually Zip archives containing a bunch of very small source and bytecode files used for executing the program in your Java runtime compiler/interpreter.

    When you visit one of these sites, the Intercheck process (On-Access scanner) has to decomplress the .jar file and scan each file inside -- if you're already low on memory and there are many files inside the .jar archive, this can cause decompression and scanning to swap out to virtual memory, causing the beachball effect.

    To fix this, disable scanning inside archives and compressed files for on-access scanning.  It reduces your security slightly, but will vastly improve your computer performance (especially if you're using a large Java program like NeoOffice).

    :1001891
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    Agile wrote:

    Thanks for coming to the forums!

    Which OS version and web browser are you using?

    I think I know the answer to your problem though.

    You have On-Access scanning enabled with "Scan: Inside archives and compressed files" checked.

    The issue is that the sites you've listed contain Java applets and Adobe Flash, not simple Javascript.  Java applets are actually Zip archives containing a bunch of very small source and bytecode files used for executing the program in your Java runtime compiler/interpreter.

    When you visit one of these sites, the Intercheck process (On-Access scanner) has to decomplress the .jar file and scan each file inside -- if you're already low on memory and there are many files inside the .jar archive, this can cause decompression and scanning to swap out to virtual memory, causing the beachball effect.

    To fix this, disable scanning inside archives and compressed files for on-access scanning.  It reduces your security slightly, but will vastly improve your computer performance (especially if you're using a large Java program like NeoOffice).

    Very nice answer. I am using OSX Snow Leopard. I believed it happened no matter what browser I was using. But I mainly use Safari and Firefox. I can try and recreate the problem with other browsers. Well, from the sounds of it, it seems to be more a "feature" rather than a problem. My thing is though, is this something that Sophos can "fix" so to speak or improve on? Do other AV's softwares exhibit this behavior? Not complaining, just curious. No matter how you cut it, disabling a feature of Sophos is still greatly better than running around with no Software to protect you.

    :1001893
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    We still cannot run NeoOffice with Sophos.  We do not have the archive and compressed file box checked for on-access, and we completely uninstalled Sophos on one computer and NeoOffice still won't open.  We even uninstalled and reinstalled NeoOffice AFTER uninstalling Sophos and NeoOffice STILL won't open.  Can you help?

    :1007657