Avast incident
SMB AV 26.1 - Outlook Add-on causes Outlook to freeze when opening/downloading attachments
Avast experienced a minor incident on March 6, 2026 affecting Antivirus Services, lasting 4d. The incident has been resolved; the full update timeline is below.
Affected components
Update timeline
- identified Mar 06, 2026, 11:55 AM UTC
We are currently investigating a performance issue with the latest SMB Antivirus 26.1 release where the Avast Outlook add‑in may cause Outlook to freeze when opening or downloading attachments. Multiple Outlook versions can be affected. Workaround (until a fix is released): Disable the Avast Outlook add‑in. Restart the Outlook client with add‑in disabled. Our engineering team is actively working on a permanent fix. We will provide an updated status as soon as more information is available.
- identified Mar 09, 2026, 02:18 PM UTC
The issue has been identified and a fix is currently being tested before being released to production. We will provide an updated ETA for the fix release as soon as possible.
- monitoring Mar 10, 2026, 08:46 AM UTC
The fix has been implemented via microupdate 968 and has now been distributed automatically to all production. Please note that it may take some time for the microupdate to be automatically downloaded and a restart of affected devices will then be needed for the fix to apply. We are currently monitoring the results.
- resolved Mar 10, 2026, 12:36 PM UTC
The incident has been resolved.