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

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
Reply
  • 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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