Whitelisting Program

 

Avast file whitelisting is a service provided mainly to software developers to reduce the risk of false positive detections. Software developers who sign their applications with digital certificates can apply for whitelisting via their digital signature. This type of whitelisting is provided to a limited number of digital signatures, and only if the software developer has a clean track record.

Analysts for Avast Threat Labs review submitted files and software for malicious or unwanted activity. Applications that are both free from malware and meet our guidelines for application transparency can be whitelisted. If determined clean, the submitted file is moved to our set of approved files to ensure it is no longer flagged as malicious.

Uploaded files are only visible to Avast Threat Labs analysts. Avast does not collect any personal information from files submitted for whitelisting. We reserve the right to share the uploaded samples with other security companies for research purposes, along with the information that the whitelisted samples are virus free.

Registering for the Whitelisting Program

You can register for the Avast Whitelisting Program at https://www.avast.com/whitelist-program-registration.

Whitelist submissions must be from a private company domain email address, and requests from public email domains (such as @gmail.com, @mail.com, @outlook.com, @yahoo.com, etc.) will be ignored.

Please attach any file somehow connected with your company to be used for the authentication of the requestor. For example, you can attach an .exe file of a program (digitally signed is best), or a text file.

Once your registration is approved, you will receive credentials for logging in to the Avast FTP Server. Then, you can upload all files for whitelisting without size limits.

Submitting Your Files and Applications

Once you have received the login credentials for the Avast FTP Server, you can access it to upload your files.

Preparing Files for Uploading

Compress your files to a .zip archive following these steps:

1. Download and run the installer for 7-Zip
2. Select and right-click all requested files and click 7-Zip > Add to archive from the context menu
3. Under Archive, provide your preferred archive name to identify it on our FTP server
4. Under Encryption, do not enter any password
5. Click Ok to create the compressed archive, which will be located in the same folder as the original files

Uploading Files to the FTP Server

Upload a file or an archive to the Avast FTP server with any FTP client software using the following parameters:

File Protocol	Encryption	Host Name	Port Number	Login	Directory
FTP	No encryption	whitelisting.avast.com	21	Your account credentials (received after joining program)	/share

Only upload files to the FTP server that should be whitelisted. You cannot see any content on the server, even the files you upload.

Avast Threat Labs are notified automatically after you upload your file. Uploaded files will be processed within 24 hours after upload. You will not be notified about the whitelisting process, however, you can update virus definitions and scan the submitted file to verify that it has been added.

Downloading and Using FTP Software

If you do not already have FTP software, follow these steps:

1. Download and run the installer for WinSCP with default settings
2. Double-click the WinSCP icon on your desktop to run the FTP client
3. On the login screen, enter the parameters listed in Uploading Files to the FTP Server
4. Click Advanced, then select Directories in the left-hand pane
5. Enter share in the Remote directory field, then click Ok
6. Click Login to connect to the FTP server
7. Right-click the files you want to whitelist and select Upload
8. Click Ok to upload the archive to the share folder on the FTP Server