Jira (PUP-8956) puppet agent doesn't run properly when avast anti-virus running

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Geoff Williams (JIRA)

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Jun 24, 2018, 5:47:02 AM6/24/18
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Geoff Williams created an issue
 
Puppet / Bug PUP-8956
puppet agent doesn't run properly when avast anti-virus running
Issue Type: Bug Bug
Affects Versions: PUP 5.5.2
Assignee: Unassigned
Attachments: pupp-bug-3.png, puppet_bug-2.png, pup_win_bug_1.png
Components: Windows
Created: 2018/06/24 2:46 AM
Environment:

Windows 10 x64

Avast anti virus active

Priority: Normal Normal
Reporter: Geoff Williams

Overview

Unable to run puppet agent on windows 10 when Avast anti-virus is active

 

Expected result

Expect puppet agent to work without error

 

Actual result

Tons of errors all over the place where the AV agent blocks puppet

C:\WINDOWS\system32>puppet agent -t
Info: Caching certificate for bpm-r1.lan.asio
Info: Caching certificate_revocation_list for ca
Info: Caching certificate for bpm-r1.lan.asio
Info: Using configured environment 'production'
Info: Retrieving pluginfacts
Info: Retrieving plugin
Notice: /File[C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter]/ensure: created
Notice: /File[C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/aio_agent_build.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}cdcc1ff07bc245c66cc1d46be56b3af5'
Notice: /File[C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/aio_agent_version.rb]/ensure: defined content as '{md5}d05c8cbf788f47d33efd46a935dda61e'
Error: ReplaceFile(C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/archive_windir.rb, C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/archive_windir.rb20180624-10408-1ezfsm4): Unable to remove the file to be replaced.
Error: /File[C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/archive_windir.rb]/ensure: change from 'absent' to 'file' failed: ReplaceFile(C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/archive_windir.rb, C:/ProgramData/PuppetLabs/puppet/cache/lib/facter/archive_windir.rb20180624-10408-1ezfsm4): Unable to remove the file to be replaced.

 

Analysis

Disabling all avast shields, Puppet agent works as expected (see screenshot)

 

Workaround

Remove anti-virus or set exclusions

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Geoff Williams (JIRA)

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Jun 24, 2018, 5:50:02 AM6/24/18
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Josh Cooper (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 2:00:04 PM6/25/18
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Josh Cooper (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 2:09:02 PM6/25/18
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Josh Cooper commented on Bug PUP-8956
 
Re: puppet agent doesn't run properly when avast anti-virus running

ping Larissa Lane, Ethan Brown. I'm guessing it doesn't like something about our call to ReplaceFile, assigning to Windows team.

Larissa Lane (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 2:17:02 PM6/25/18
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Larissa Lane (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 2:23:03 PM6/25/18
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Larissa Lane updated an issue
 

Would appreciate CS input on the customer impact of this issue.

Change By: Larissa Lane
CS Priority: Needs Priority

Ethan Brown (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 6:52:03 PM6/25/18
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Ethan Brown commented on Bug PUP-8956
 
Re: puppet agent doesn't run properly when avast anti-virus running

Larissa Lane this doesn't seem like a regression. Sometimes overly aggressive AV software can get in the way of Puppet performing work. Since Puppet should be behaving like a SYSTEM management / configuration process, it performs actions that AV probably doesn't believe usermode software should be performing.

 

I'm not sure there's much we can do from the engineering side on this one, as this seems like more of a documentation problem. We could probably write code to probe the system in an effort to determine if specific APIs will fail and immediately fail / warn, but it seems like we might be chasing our tail a bit given the number of AV products out there and an incomplete understanding of what they all do.

 

 

Josh Cooper (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 7:18:03 PM6/25/18
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Josh Cooper commented on Bug PUP-8956

Larissa Lane I don't think it's a regression, but it could be. The one change I know of in that area was PUP-7394, first released in 5.4.0.

Geoff Williams (JIRA)

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Jun 25, 2018, 9:00:02 PM6/25/18
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Customer for this ticket is just me - I have a lab of Windows machines and figured the info might be useful to someone

Ethan Brown (JIRA)

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Jun 26, 2018, 7:06:04 PM6/26/18
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Ethan Brown commented on Bug PUP-8956

Geoff Williams the info is definitely useful. It would also be useful to know if you could test an older version of Puppet, prior to 5.4.0, to see if you see the same issue?

Geoff Williams (JIRA)

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Jun 26, 2018, 11:01:11 PM6/26/18
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Ethan Brown I ended up uninstalling avast to let puppet run. I'm out of time to spend looking at this issue myself unfortunately

Neil Binney (JIRA)

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Jun 27, 2018, 3:39:03 AM6/27/18
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Neil Binney updated an issue
 
Change By: Neil Binney
CS Priority: Needs Priority Reviewed

Josh Cooper (Jira)

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Mar 4, 2020, 12:25:04 PM3/4/20
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Josh Cooper commented on Bug PUP-8956
 
Re: puppet agent doesn't run properly when avast anti-virus running

There haven't been any updates to this ticket in nearly 2 years. Going to close as there doesn't seem to be anything actionable here.

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